…As Aid group sees ever more health problems among Mediterranean migrants***

The Delta Government said on Tuesday that it was committed to rehabilitating the 78 returnees from Libya who are from the state.

The state Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr Ernest Ogwezzy, said this during an interview with newsmen in Asaba.

Ogwezzy said that the returnees arrived the state on Saturday and the state government had been taken care of them since then.

He said that the returnees had learnt from their experiences and urged them to put those experiences behind them and looked forward to a new lease of life.

He said that details of the returnees had been collected and that the government would enrol them in its various skills’ acquisition programmes.

One of the returnees, Child Odiase said that he went to Libya in search of greener pasture with the intention to cross to Europe but was arrested in the process.

Odiase said that many Nigerians had died in the process, while many others were in prison.

He said that whenever the Nigerian Ambassador to Libya came round to see them,  the Libyans would lock them up so that the envoy would not  see them.

He said that if you were brought before the Ambassador and you talked that others were being locked up, your punishment would increase after he must have left.

He thanked the government for coming to their rescue and prayed that others still in various detentions in Libya would return to Nigeria safely.

Another returnee, Chico Frankson said that he was taken to several prisons before he was brought back home.

He said that they were usually served with  foods  drugged and were being subjected to manual labour by the Libyans.

Meanwhile, Health conditions among people trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe seem to be deteriorating, according to a private humanitarian aid organisation that works with the migrants.

People who make the crossing from Libya are increasingly showing signs of skin diseases, which hints at the “catastrophic hygienic conditions’’ in the centres where people are kept in the country racked by civil war, said the SOS Mediterranee relief group.

“Our last operations around Christmas turned up babies and children whose entire bodies were covered with red, itchy pustules,’’ said Klaus Merkle, a rescue coordinator on board the ship Aquarius, according to a press release.

“This is a clear sign that people, adults and children are being kept in horrible conditions for months at a time.’’

The UN refugee agency UNHCR expressed similar concerns at the end of 2017.

Some people wait for spans stretching up to a year and a half in detention centres in Libya, emerging weakened, dehydrated and sometimes showing signs of torture or violence when they are then rescued from boats on the Mediterranean.

Libya is a key transit country for people trying to reach Europe.

According to estimates, between 400,000 and 1 million migrants are stranded in the violent country, hoping to make the trip to Europe.

However, ever since Italy reached a deal with Libya to support Libya’s coastguard, fewer of those Europe-bound vessels have reached their goal.