Libya: 107 migrants freed from captivity in police raid
A security forces spokesman said at least 107 migrants were freed from captivity in south-eastern Libya on May 6th, according to Reuters. Some of the freed people were in a poor medical condition, showing signs of torture.
The 107 migrants purportedly came from a variety of sub-Saharan African countries, with the majority from Somalia.
Spokesman for Benghazi’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Walid Alorafi, said some of those freed told authorities that they had been held in captivity for up to seven months prior to release.
“We raided a hideout in the downtown of Kufra last night and we found illegal migrants including women, children and old men who some have marks of torture and bullets,” Alorafi stated, and that the people had been “handed over to [the] illegal migration agency for completion of some procedures.”
Some of the migrants’ “health condition is very poor,” Alorafi added.
CID later released video footage of the demolition of the house that was raided, as-well-as shots of migrants with torture marks on their bodies. Some of them could be seen being carried towards an ambulance by aid workers.
Libya has become a key departure point for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via perilous Mediterranean crossings, in the wake of the NATA-backed toppling of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. The fracturing of the country into two rival administrations in Tripoli and Benghazi, backed by decentralized local militias has fostered an ideal environment for predatory people smugglers to operate in.
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The country’s oil-based economy is also a pull factor for migrants seeking work and is home to an estimated 704,369 migrants of 43 nationalities, according to UN figures.
On March 22nd, the UN’s international Organization for Migration said the bodies of at least 65 migrants were discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya by CID, as reported by AP.
“I urge bolstered regional cooperation to ensure migrants’ protection,” said the U.N. former special envoy Abdullah Bathily, who resigned April 16th, in his briefing to the Security Council the same day.
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Bathily added that “recent reports from Sabha revealed shocking treatment of migrants in arbitrary detention, underscoring the urgent need for action by Libyan authorities to ease human suffering.”
Reuters / AP
