At least 107 migrants freed from captivity in southeast Libya, spokesperson says

At least 107 migrants, including women and children, have been freed from captivity in a town in southeast Libya, a security force spokesperson said on Monday.

Walid Alorafi, spokesperson for the criminal investigation department (CID) in Benghazi, said according to some migrants, they were held in captivity for up to seven months and "they wanted to go to Europe".

The migrants are from sub-Saharan countries but mainly from Somalia, Alorafi said.

"We raided a hideout in downtown Kufra last night and found illegal migrants, including women, children and old men who have marks of torture and bullets," Alorafi said.

"The migrants have been handed over to the illegal migration agency for completion of procedures."

The CID posted video footage of their force demolishing the house where the migrants were held. Other footage included shots of migrants with torture marks on their bodies. Some migrants were seen being carried to an ambulance by aid workers.

Some migrants' "health condition is very poor", Alorafi said.

Kufra is about 1,712km from the capital Tripoli.

Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via the dangerous route across the desert and over the Mediterranean after the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a Nato-backed uprising in 2011.

Its oil-based economy is also a draw for migrants seeking work.

Oil-rich Libya is home to 704,369 migrants of more than 43 nationalities, according to data collected in 100 Libyan municipalities in mid-2023, UN figures show.

In March the International Organization for Migration said at least 65 migrants' bodies had been discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya by the CID.

"I urge bolstered regional cooperation to ensure migrants’ protection," said UN special envoy Abdullah Bathily in his briefing to the Security Council in April.

Bathily, who had tendered his resignation to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, said: "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