Tripoli, Apr 4 (IANS): The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 344 migrants were rescued and returned to Libya in the past week.

The migrants, including 24 women and 10 children, were saved between March 26 and April 1, Xinhua news agency quoted the IOM as saying in a statement.

So far this year, 4,241 illegal migrants have been rescued and sent back to Libya, while 269 died and 172 others went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route, the organisation said.

In 2022, a total of 24,684 migrants were rescued and returned to Libya, the IOM revealed, adding 525 migrants died and 848 others went missing off the Libyan coast.

Since the fall of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, a large number of migrants, most of whom Africans, attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach European shores from Libya.

Rescued migrants usually ended up inside overcrowded reception centres in Libya, despite repeated international calls to close those facilities and release the migrants.