On Thursday, August 13, 2026, 119 Ivorian nationals stranded in Libya returned home aboard a charter flight, marking the latest step in voluntary return operations led by Ivorian authorities with support from international partners. The group, made up of 79 men, 18 women and 22 minors, was welcomed at Terminal 2 of Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Abidjan by Adama Dosso, deputy minister in charge of Ivorians abroad.
The return falls under the voluntary return mechanism run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with the European Union, and aimed at Ivorian nationals in irregular migration situations who find themselves in difficulty abroad. Libya remains a major transit territory on migration routes toward the Mediterranean, where many people hoping to reach Europe end up stranded, often in extremely precarious conditions.
This flight was not an isolated case. Two days earlier, on August 11, another charter had already brought 135 Ivorians back to Abidjan from Niger, including two minors, bringing the total number of nationals repatriated within just a few days to 254. Since February 2026, several similar flights have been organized from Niger, Tunisia and Libya, bringing several hundred nationals back to the country.
Behind these numbers lie accounts marked by violence and exploitation. Among those repatriated from Libya is a woman who says she was arrested in Tunisia as she was leaving her job as a domestic worker, then forced into a vehicle and taken to a location where several other Ivorians were already being held. She recounts being taken onward to Libya, where she says she was sold into slavery and imprisoned, with her captors demanding a ransom from her family back home. Now back in Ivory Coast thanks to government efforts, she is urging young people to stay in a country she now describes as a true eldorado.
Other accounts gathered from recently returned migrants describe equally grueling journeys: attempts to cross the Mediterranean, prison sentences served in Libya, or desert treks undertaken in hopes of reaching Europe. Several of these returnees are now urging young Ivorians to seize opportunities available at home rather than risk this kind of journey.
According to the deputy minister in charge of Ivorians abroad, this return is by no means a first: since the start of the year, more than 4,000 nationals who had set out to cross the desert have already been repatriated, with widely varying fates. The Directorate General for Ivorians Abroad reports five waves of returns organized since January 2026, representing nearly 670 nationals brought back from Niger and North Africa, adding to the roughly 8,700 Ivorians already repatriated between 2022 and 2025.
On arrival, beneficiaries of these operations receive immediate initial assistance, followed by reintegration support that can extend over eighteen months. It is a system Ivorian authorities intend to continue and strengthen, as irregular migration continues to weigh on part of the country’s youth, despite risks now widely documented through the accounts of those who have lived to tell them.