Tripoli, Nov 22 (IANS): The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said it had resettled 71 refugees from Libya to Canada.

"UNHCR resettled 71 refugees, including 37 children, from Libya to Canada supported by IOM (the International Organization for Migration)," the UNHCR tweeted on Sunday.

"The group included families from Syria, Sudan, Palestine and Somalia," it added.

There are currently 41,404 refugees and asylum-seekers registered in Libya at the UNHCR, Xinhua news agency reported.

Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, making the North African country a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores.

So far in 2021, a total of 29,427 illegal immigrants have been rescued, while 490 died and 736 went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route, according to the IOM.