TRIPOLI, Jan 16: Libya has begun rounding up and immediately expelling all illegal immigrants in the north African state, the official news agency JANA said on Wednesday.

It said the country had decided “to begin immediate roundup operations of all immigrants in an irregular situation, without exception, and their immediate repatriation.”

More than one million illegal immigrants are believed to live in the country which, according to Tripoli’s latest figures, repatriated 64,430 of them in 2006 at an estimated cost of nearly four million euros.

Libya is a favoured destination for Africans from the east and south both because of its oil wealth and, with its 1,770 kilometre Mediterranean coastline, the possibilities for reaching Malta or the Italian island.—AFP