Canada welcomes over 750 ex-slaves from Libya as Refugees

Canada has announced plans to welcome at least 750 ex-slaves from Libya as refugees, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said on Wednesday.

“In 2017, the world was shocked to see the harrowing images of people being sold into slavery in Libya. Canada was one of the few countries to step up to work with the UNHCR to resettle these refugees directly from Libya and offer them a new home in Canada,” the minister said in a statement.

Hussen, himself a former refugee from Somalia added that ‘Canada is also taking action to resettle 100 refugees from Niger, rescued from Libyan migrant detention centres, including victims of human smuggling”.

According to the United Nations, the number of migrants travelling through Libya to reach Europe has increased tenfold since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 and their fate was highlighted dramatically in 2017 – by multiple shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and the broadcast of a CNN report showing a Libyan slave market.