BENGHAZI: Libya’s security authorities have freed more than 200 migrants from what they described as a secret prison in the town of Kufra in the southeast of the country after they were held captive in inhuman conditions, two security sources from the city told Reuters on Sunday.
The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the security authorities had found an underground prison, nearly three meters deep, which the sources said was run by a Libyan human trafficker.
One of the sources said this person had not yet been detained.
“Some of the freed migrants were held captive up to two years in the underground cells,” this source said.
The other source said what the operation had found was “one of the most serious crimes against humanity that has been uncovered in the region.”
“The operation resulted in a raid on a secret prison within the city, where several inhumane underground detention cells were uncovered,” one of the sources added.
The freed migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from Somalia and Eritrea, including women and children, the sources said. Kufra lies in eastern Libya, about 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the capital Tripoli.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
The oil-based Libyan economy is also a draw for impoverished migrants seeking work, but security throughout the sprawling country is poor, leaving migrants vulnerable to abuses.
At least 21 bodies of migrants were found in a mass grave in eastern Libya last week, with up to 10 survivors in the group bearing signs of having been tortured before they were freed from captivity, two security sources told Reuters.
Libya’s attorney general said in a statement on Friday the authorities in the east of the country had referred a defendant to the court for trial in connection with the mass grave on charges of “committing serious violations against migrants.”
In February last year, 39 bodies of migrants were recovered from about 55 mass graves in Kufra. The town houses tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the conflict that erupted in Sudan in 2023.
Libya’s security authorities free more than 200 migrants from ‘secret prison’, two security sources say
https://arab.news/64z48
Libya’s security authorities free more than 200 migrants from ‘secret prison’, two security sources say
- Security authorities had found an underground prison, nearly three meters deep, which the sources said was run by a Libyan human trafficker
Syrian authorities bust smuggling ring, tighten border controls
- Smugglers' boat collides with rocks as it attempted to flee pursuing as Coast Guard vessels
- The boat was about to illegally transport passengers from the Syrian coast of Tartus coast to Cyprus
DAMASCUS: Syrian Coast Guard forces have arrested members of a human smuggling network operating in the western town of Tartus, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported Saturday.
Authorities pounced on the smugglers as they were about to transport passengers from the Tartus coast to Cyprus by illegal means, the state media said, citing a statement from the General Authority of Ports and Customs.
"The operation resulted in the arrest of all those involved, including the organizers of the trip," said the report, adding that the smugglers' boat attempted to escape as Coast Guard vessels surrounded it, but collided with rocks.
No details were made available on how many suspects were arrested and how many passengers were rescued. Criminal charges are being prepared against the arrested suspects, SANA said.
New restrictions on commercial transit
In a separate move to regulate trade and border security, the ports and customs authority has issued a new policy restricting truck access at land crossings and seaports.
Commercial trucks will now only be permitted entry for loading or unloading upon presentation of an original receipt from the Ministry of Transport’s freight office.
The transfer of cargo between Syrian and non-Syrian vehicles must now take place strictly within designated customs yards at border crossings.
Trucks passing through Syria in transit remain permitted, provided they are under a mandatory customs escort between entry and exit points.
