TRIPOLI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah on Wednesday met with Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese in Libya's capital Tripoli and discussed illegal migration issue, the Libyan Government's information office said in a statement.
"Lamorgese stressed the need for continuous communication with the Libyan Ministry of Interior to coordinate on a number of important common issues, the most important of which is the illegal migration," the statement said.
Dbeibah stressed the need to activate the Italian role in the illegal migration issue, and the need for serious cooperation between the two ministries of the two countries.
"The meeting also discussed the current events in Tunisia and their impact on illegal migration in particular," the statement added.
Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, making the North African country a preferred point of departure for illegal migrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores.
So far in 2021, more than 19,000 illegal migrants, including women and children, have been rescued at sea and returned to Libya, while 360 died and 570 went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Enditem
