UN launches $75m appeal for Libya

Th e United Nations on Tuesday launched a $75.5 million appeal to tackle a swelling humanitarian and migration crisis in Libya. Th e UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the funds would go toward providing essential services for displaced people, refugees and asylum-seekers. Th e appeal is in partnership with the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). “We have urgent work to do in Libya and can only do it together,” said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi in a statement. “We are going the extra mile in trying to make a diff erence for hundreds of thousands of people.” Th e work will buttress the IOM’s own appeal, launched last month, which set down a three-year $180-million plan. Rival administrations and militias have fought for control of the oil-rich country since the 2011 uprising that toppled Moamer Kadhafi . Libya is also the hub for African migrants desperate to reach Europe. Th eir trek is notorious for exploitation and maltreatment and for the dangerous sea crossing. Th e IOM Tuesday that it had tallied 1,481 migrant deaths on the Mediterranean, with a further 1,720 people missing, since the start of the year.