TRIPOLI - Libya's Immigration Control Department in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday announced the deportation of 62 illegal immigrants to Chad and Sudan.

The immigrants were deported by land through the southern borders with Chad and Sudan, the department said in a statement.

The International Organization for Migration recently said that Libya has more than 650,000 illegal immigrants with 6,000 of them, including women and children, being held in detention centers.

Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe from Libya as the country has been mired in insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Shelters in Libya are crowded with thousands of migrants rescued at sea or arrested by Libyan security services despite international calls to close those centers.