More than 100 migrants freed in Libya after being held captive by gang, officials say
'A criminal group involved in organizing the smuggling of migrants, depriving them of their freedom, trafficking them, and torturing them to force their families to pay ransoms for their release,' a statement from the attorney general said.
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 following the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
Many migrants desperate to make the crossing have fallen into the hands of traffickers. The freed migrants had been held in Ajdabiya, some 160 km (100 miles) from Libya's second city Benghazi.
Five suspected traffickers from Libya, Sudan and Egypt, have been arrested, officials said.
The attorney general and Ajdabiya security directorate posted pictures of the migrants on their Facebook pages which they said had been retrieved from the suspects' mobile phones.
They showed migrants with hands and legs cuffed with signs that they had been beaten.
In February, at least 28 bodies were recovered from a mass grave in the desert north of Kufra city. Officials said a gang had subjected the migrants to torture and inhumane treatment.
That followed another 19 bodies being found in a mass grave in the Jikharra area, also in southeastern Libya, a security directorate said, blaming a known smuggling network.
As of December 2024, around 825,000 migrants from 47 countries were recorded in Libya, according to UN data released in May.
Last week, the EU migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece met with the internationally recognized prime minister of the national unity government, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and discussed the migration crisis.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
19 hours ago
- Arab News
Philippines appeals for help to rescue nationals trapped in scam hubs
MANILA: The Philippines is appealing to foreign governments for help in rescuing its nationals believed to be trapped in scam hubs across mainland Southeast Asia, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. For several years, the cyberscam industry has proliferated in Southeast Asia, especially in border areas of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. More than 220,000 people from all over the world — many trafficked to the region — have been working in scam hubs in Cambodia and Myanmar alone, according to UN Office on Drugs and Crime data. UNODC's April 2025 report estimates that they generate about $40 billion annually, from romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud, fake investment platforms, online gambling, phishing and impersonation scams. The presence of Filipinos in these operations came to the spotlight when at least 200 of them were freed in late February and March from a scam center located in an office complex in Myawaddy on Myanmar's border with Thailand. It was unclear at the time how many more Philippine nationals remained there, but the Department of Foreign Affairs has been receiving reports of Filipinos 'still trapped inside different scam centers' in Southeast Asia. The DFA said it is working closely with its embassies and consulates in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia 'to persistently devote efforts and resources in extending all possible assistance to our Filipinos in distress, while requesting the authorities of the host countries for their invaluable cooperation.' The DFA called on overseas-based nationals to help prevent the recruitment of Filipinos into such operations, and urged relatives of victims 'to provide verified information on their kin that they believe may be trapped in scam hubs in the vicinity of the Myanmar-Thai border.' The rescue of Philippine nationals in April helped to shed light on new patterns of their recruitment by scam syndicates. An investigation by the Philippine Interagency Council Against Trafficking showed that many of them came from the Philippines' middle class and were often educated individuals — not necessarily unemployed — seeking better opportunities abroad. The offers usually came through unofficial channels such as social media, advertising roles in call centers, marketing, customer service or chat support — often based in Thailand. But once they reached Thailand, instead of the jobs they were promised, the victims were transported across the border into the high-security compounds where they were forced to scam people globally. Their rescue is complicated by the fact that many hubs operate in lawless border zones or semi-autonomous regions controlled by militias, such as Myanmar's Karen State, limiting diplomatic and law enforcement reach.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
More than 100 migrants freed in Libya after being held captive by gang, officials say
BENGHAZI: More than 100 migrants, including five women, have been freed from captivity after being held for ransom by a gang in eastern Libya, the country's attorney general said on Monday. 'A criminal group involved in organizing the smuggling of migrants, depriving them of their freedom, trafficking them, and torturing them to force their families to pay ransoms for their release,' a statement from the attorney general said. 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 following the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. Many migrants desperate to make the crossing have fallen into the hands of traffickers. The freed migrants had been held in Ajdabiya, some 160 km (100 miles) from Libya's second city Benghazi. Five suspected traffickers from Libya, Sudan and Egypt, have been arrested, officials said. The attorney general and Ajdabiya security directorate posted pictures of the migrants on their Facebook pages which they said had been retrieved from the suspects' mobile phones. They showed migrants with hands and legs cuffed with signs that they had been beaten. In February, at least 28 bodies were recovered from a mass grave in the desert north of Kufra city. Officials said a gang had subjected the migrants to torture and inhumane treatment. That followed another 19 bodies being found in a mass grave in the Jikharra area, also in southeastern Libya, a security directorate said, blaming a known smuggling network. As of December 2024, around 825,000 migrants from 47 countries were recorded in Libya, according to UN data released in May. Last week, the EU migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece met with the internationally recognized prime minister of the national unity government, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and discussed the migration crisis.
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Police detain 8 people after anti-migrant clashes in Spanish town
Eight people have been detained by police in Spain in relation to violent clashes that erupted between far-right groups, local residents, and migrants in a southeastern town over the weekend, officials said on Monday. Clashes in Torre-Pacheco in the Murcia region took place on Saturday night after an elderly resident was beaten up earlier in the week by unknown assailants, which led to a call by far-right groups to seek retribution on the area's large migrant community. The motivation for the initial attack was not clear. Among those detained were two people allegedly linked to the attack on the elderly man and several others in relation to the weekend clashes, Mariola Guevara, the central government's representative in Murcia, said Monday on X. Six Spaniards and one North African resident were detained for the assaults, damages, and disturbances, Guevara said. The two others detained had helped the perpetrator of the attack on the elderly man, she said. A major police presence was moved into Torre-Pacheco, which has a population of roughly 42,000. About a third of its residents are of foreign origin, according to local government figures. Large numbers of migrants also work in the surrounding area as day laborers in agriculture, a major driver of the regional economy.
