Lagos - Nigeria's president said on
Wednesday the government had started bringing stranded citizens
home from Libya after a global outcry over reports that migrants
there were being sold into slavery.
Muhammadu Buhari's comments came days after CNN aired
footage that appeared to show men being auctioned as farm hands
in Libya after being smuggled across the Sahara.
Libya's U.N.-backed government has said it is investigating.
Read: Calls mount to rescue migrants from Libya 'slave trade'
"The situation in Libya, of people being sold into slavery,
is appalling and unacceptable. We will do everything to protect
our citizens wherever they might be," Buhari wrote on his
Twitter account.
Nigeria had "started bringing back home all Nigerians
stranded in Libya and elsewhere," he added.
The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration said 239
Nigerians flew home from Tripoli on Tuesday.
It has said Nigerian migrants risk exploitation, detention
and abuse as they head north to Libya, hoping to cross the
Mediterranean to Europe.