Nearly 400 Pakistani migrants were freed in raid on Libyan trafficking warehouse, rights group says
Source: Associated Press
Nearly 400 Pakistani migrants were freed in raid on Libyan trafficking warehouse, rights group says
BY JACK JEFFERY
Updated 3:35 PM EDT, July 31, 2023
CAIRO (AP) — Security authorities in eastern Libya freed at least 385 Pakistani migrants who were held in trafficking warehouses in an overnight raid, a migrant rights group said Monday.
Al-Abreen, a group which helps migrants in Libya, said the Pakistani nationals were released early Monday from smugglers’ warehouses in the al-Khueir area, roughly 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk. The migrants — among them children — were later transferred to a nearby police headquarters, it said in a post on its official Facebook page.
Esreiwa Salah, an activist with al-Abreen, told The Associated Press the Pakistani migrants arrived in Libya intending to travel to Europe but were detained by smugglers who demanded a ransom for their release. No further details were given.
Several pictures posted on al-Abreen’s Facebook page showed dozens of purportedly freed Pakistani migrants sitting outside of a warehouse.
Libya is the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe. The country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Oil-rich Libya has been ruled for most of the past decade by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by an array of militias and foreign governments.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/libya-migrant-smugglers-freed-europe-b88817466bec3bdf93e506b014cee10c
