Evacuated migrants taken out of detention centers by the UNHCR from Tripoli at the military airport Pratica di Mare in Rome Friday. (photo: Reuters)

Italy said on December 24 that 10,000 people stranded in refugee camps and detention centers in Libya could be relocated to Europe in 2018. They will be able to come to Europe without risk, through humanitarian corridors, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said on Monday. The announcement came after a group of 162 vulnerable people from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen were evacuated from Libya and arrived by military plane in Rome on Friday. They included single mothers, unaccompanied children, and disabled people.

Libya has been a transit country for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Human trafficking groups have taken advantage of Libya’s instability. Migrants have been auctioned off in slave markets in Libya. The UN has appealed to countries to take in 1,300 people who are trapped in extremely poor conditions in Libya.

Germany has planned to repatriate young Moroccans and generate jobs for them in their home countries. Two youth villages will be built in Morocco to take care of hundreds of under-18 returnees, some of whom have volunteered to return home and some who have committed crimes in Germany and are being forced to return. So far German reception centers have cared for 48,000 unaccompanied young migrants.

Europe has offered development assistance and tightened border security to reduce migrant flows. The efforts of Italy and Germany have helped thousands of people, but in the long run the EU needs consensus among its member countries to solve the problem.