TRIPOLI, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Higher Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday announced evacuation of 72 refugees from Libya to Romania.

"Over last few days, 72 refugees from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria evacuated from Libya to Romania's Emergency Transit Center," UNHCR tweeted.

"They're expected to be resettled in Norway before the end of the year. Thank you to all governments, partners for making this possible," UNHCR said.

The UNHCR estimated that 4,500 refugees and asylum seekers are now being held in detention centers in Libya, confirming that they face risk of "being caught up in the continued clashes."

Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, chose to cross the Mediterranean from Libya towards Europe, due to the state of insecurity and chaos in the North African nation following the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Libya's east-based army and the UN-backed government have been fighting since early April over control of Tripoli, which has claimed many lives including immigrants. Enditem

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