On #WorldMentalHealthDay, International Organization for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with the Government of Ghana, assisted 134 Ghanaian migrants to voluntarily return from Libya via charter flight.
Amongst others, staff with psychosocial expertise from IOM, Ghana Health Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Ghana provided psychological first aid and mental health screenings.
Going forward, IOM and partners say they will assist the returnees with ”developing a comprehensive reintegration plan which, besides economic and social needs, also encompasses psychosocial support”.
As part of IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return Assistance Programme, this support is made possible thanks to the Migrant Protection, Return and Reintegration Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa (MPRR-SSA) funded by the European Union.
The Libyan Crisis is the current humanitarian crisis and political-military instability occurring in Libya, beginning with the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which led to two civil wars, foreign military intervention, and the ousting and death of Muammar Gaddafi.
In 2022, 2% of the population was multidimensionally poor, and 11.4% was vulnerable to becoming multidimensionally poor. About 800,000 people in need require humanitarian assistance. The unemployment rate reached 19.6% in 2022, and acute food insecurity continues to escalate, according to reports.
The African Development Bank says, in 2022, real GDP contracted sharply, by 12.1%, after growing 28.3% in 2021. The recession was driven by rising conflict and lower performance of hydrocarbon, services, and, to a lesser extent, manufacturing.
Inflation increased to 4.6% in 2022 from 2.8% in 2021, following the rise in prices of food and essential goods. As of January 2023, no agreement had been reached on unifying the Central Bank of Libya with its Eastern branch, affecting the country’s monetary policy and banking system.
