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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 8 April 2015:
The rate of Egyptians leaving Libya has dropped significantly since the initial days and weeks . . .[restrict]following the beheadings of the 21 Christians by the Islamic State (IS), 20 of the Egyptians, and the subsequent airstrikes on Derna carried out by the Libyan National Army and Egyptian forces.
According to reports, some 36,136 Egyptians have fled Libya since the middle of February, which is an average of about 600 people per day.
Yesterday, some 120 Egyptians left Libya legally through the Salloum port—a mere 20 percent of the daily average since February.
These numbers have been the trend for the past week, a security source has disclosed.
In February, Egypt suspended its border crossing fees at Salloum for its nationals for a period of three months to ease the movement of those fleeing Libya after the slaughter of the 21 Christians.
Nonetheless, despite the turndown in official figures, significant numbers of Egyptians still try to enter Libya illegally. According to Libyan officials, 238 Egyptians have been deported through the Salloum border crossing in the past 24 hours.
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