Ansamed

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 26 - There has still been no news of the fates of the 27 Somalis who were returned to Libya in a motor launch following a joint rescue operation with the Maltese authorities over the past days involving 55 migrants, the remainder of whom were taken instead to Malta. The head of the Centro Italiano Rifugiati, the Italian Centre for Refugees (CIR), Christopher Hein, whose organization has remained in Libya even after the closure of the UNHCR offices at the beginning of June, stated: ''Since last month it has become more difficult to get any news, and being unable to enter the centres, we have no direct witness accounts''.

Nonetheless, it has been learned that at least 400 Eritreans have been released from the detention centres along with migrants and refugees of other nationalities, and that they have been granted three-month residence permits so that they can look for work. Among these are the 200 or so Eritreans that were held in the Braq centre and who, following a revolt, faced being expelled at the country's southern border. ''We know that they all reached the coast from the desert city they were liberated in,''Hein continued, ''where it is easier to find work''.

But other question marks hang over their futures, as over the futures of other freed Eritreans, Hein said. ''The freeing is a positive sign, but it is still not known what further developments will happen after the three months are over, because the immigration permit for employment-seekers does not offer protection to refugees and what the Eritreans fear is being identified by their embassy and being repatriated''. ''People on the run from Somalia or from Eritrea cannot be repatriated, but there is no possibility for seeking asylum in Libya''.(ANSAmed).