Around 32,425 illegal immigrants were rescued at sea and returned to Libya in 2021, almost triple the figure from the previous year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

More than 160 people lost their lives in incidents involving three boats that left Libya in the past week, a spokesperson from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told Middle East Eye.

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, late leader Moammar Gadhafi’s second son and once heir, will run in Libya’s Dec. 24 presidential elections. The High National Election Commission (HNEC) objected to his application, but a court in the southern city of Sabha reinstated him on Dec. 2, rejecting HNEC’s appeal.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has circulated a Red Notice for the arrest of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of late Muammar Gaddafi, and called for international cooperation in this regard.

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan has told the Security Council that he will rescue himself from the case of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi to maintain neutrality in Libya’s file now that Gaddafi is a presidential elections candidate.

A number of human rights groups on Tuesday filed a dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) demanding the investigation of crimes against migrants and refugees in Libya that they said amount to “crimes against humanity”.

The United Nations’ migration agency said 75 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya earlier this week as they attempted to reach Italy by boat.

Ten people have been found dead in an overcrowded boat carrying migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) has said, as NGOs warned of a “rescue gap” in the Mediterranean Sea.

An arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, is still valid, an ICC spokesman said on Sunday.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Friday said it deported 140 illegal Bangladeshi migrants to their country of origin.