The African Union Commission (AUC) has disclosed that over 400,000 to 700,000 Nigerians are languishing in a camp near Tripoli in Libya.
AUC head Moussa Faki Mahamat stated this on Thursday at a summit of the African Union and European Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
European and African leaders have set themselves a tall order to stamp out horrific abuse of African migrants, some of them Nigerians in Libya, where thousands are suffering in a vast, lawless territory.
The EU-AU leaders set a goal of immediately repatriating 3,800 migrants languishing in Libya.
But experts point to a daunting array of hurdles, from extracting migrants in perilous situations to giving them incentives to stay put when they return home.
Even so, the summit’s commitment, initiated by outrage over a CNN television report on black Africans being sold as slaves in Libya, is being welcomed International Organisation for Migration Europe Director Eugenio Ambrosi told AFP that; "It is a step in the right direction.
"It is a little bit too much to think it will solve the slavery issue, but it would definitely mitigate it to some extent.” He said the summit also showed there was now international watchdog pressure” that can be brought to bear on the criminal gangs, but it must be “sustained.”