TRIPOLI, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Immigration Control Department in the eastern city of Benghazi on Monday announced the deportation of 21 illegal immigrants to Nigeria.
The illegal immigrants were deported by air from Benghazi's Benina International Airport to the Nigeria's city Lagos, the department said in a statement.
On Sunday, the department also announced deporting more than 60 illegal immigrants from Benghazi to Chad and Sudan.
The International Organization for Migration recently said that Libya has more than 650,000 illegal immigrants, 6,000 of them women and children, being held in detention centers.
Illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe from Libya as the country has been mired in insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Shelters in Libya are crowded with thousands of migrants rescued at sea or arrested by the Libyan security services, despite international calls to close those centers.
