An airlift is under way to repatriate some 15,000 African migrants, who are being held in abusive detention conditions in Libya. International Organization for Migration says it expects to complete the operation before the end of the year. <br/><br/>The repatriation operation was triggered by recent reports of rampant migrant abuse in Libya, including slave auctions by criminal gangs. <br/><br/>The IOM has begun scaling up its voluntary humanitarian return program in the wake of an African Union-European Union initiative to tackle the problem.<br/><br/>According to IOM spokesman, migrants signing up for the program are desperate to return home. The spokesman said, the migrants to be flown home are in government-administered detention centers in and around Tripoli. <br/><br/>They account for only a small portion of the migrants being detained throughout Libya. There are many, many, many other detention centers run by criminal gangs, which IOM do not have access to and that is what is leading to the reports and allegations of slave auctions.

An airlift is under way to repatriate some 15,000 African migrants, who are being held in abusive detention conditions in Libya. International Organization for Migration says it expects to complete the operation before the end of the year. <br/><br/>The repatriation operation was triggered by recent reports of rampant migrant abuse in Libya, including slave auctions by criminal gangs. <br/><br/>The IOM has begun scaling up its voluntary humanitarian return program in the wake of an African Union-European Union initiative to tackle the problem.<br/>'<br/>According to IOM spokesman, migrants signing up for the program are desperate to return home. The spokesman said, the migrants to be flown home are in government-administered detention centers in and around Tripoli. They account for only a small portion of the migrants being detained throughout Libya. <br/><br/>There are many, many, many other detention centers run by criminal gangs, which IOM do not have access to and that is what is leading to the reports and allegations of slave auctions. <br/>