Cairo, October 3 (BNA) A major crackdown in western Libya has resulted in the arrest of at least 4,000 migrants, including hundreds of women and children, officials said on Saturday. The United Nations said at least one young migrant was shot dead and 15 wounded, including two seriously, in the crackdown.
The raids took place on Friday in the western town of Qarqaresh as part of what authorities described as a security crackdown against illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The Interior Ministry, which led the crackdown, has not indicated that any smugglers or smugglers have been arrested, the Associated Press reported.
Officials said on Friday that 500 illegal immigrants had been arrested, but on Saturday they reported that the number had reached 4,000.
Gargaresh, a well-known center for migrants and refugees, is located about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) west of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The town has seen several waves of raids on immigrants over the years, but the most recent one has been described by activists as the most violent yet.
Since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has emerged as a dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, hoping for a better life in Europe. Human traffickers took advantage of the chaos in the oil-rich country and smuggled migrants across the country’s long border with six countries. Then they pack desperate migrants into ill-equipped rubber boats for perilous journeys across the perilous Central Mediterranean route.
Colonel Nuri Al-Greitli, head of the center, said that the detainees were gathered in a facility in Tripoli called the Collection and Return Center.
He said the migrants were distributed to detention centers in Tripoli and neighboring towns. Rights activists said Libyan detention centers are miserable and overcrowded places where migrants have suffered abuse and severe ill-treatment.
A government official said authorities would “deport as many as possible” of the migrants back to their countries of origin. He said that many detainees have lived illegally in Libya for years. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Tarek Lamlum, a Libyan activist working with the Beladi human rights organization, said the raids included human rights violations against migrants, particularly in the way some women and children were detained.
Lamlum said that many of the detained migrants have been registered with the UNHCR as refugees or asylum seekers.
Vincent Cochetel, the agency’s special envoy for the central Mediterranean, told The Associated Press that initial reports indicate at least one person has been killed and 15 wounded in the campaign. In some cases, he said, security personnel used excessive force and expelled people from their homes.
“We should not be surprised if people are afraid and will try to leave by sea,” he said.
Georgette Gagnon, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, said unarmed migrants were harassed in their homes, beaten and shot at in the crackdown that also saw communications cut off in Qaraqish.
In a statement late on Saturday, it said that among the wounded, five sustained gunshot wounds, two of whom were being treated in the intensive care unit.
The statement gave no further details.
The campaign comes amid a surge in crossings and attempts to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. The Libyan Coast Guard has intercepted some 25,300 migrants and returned them to Libyan shores so far this year. More than 1,100 migrants were reported to have died or presumed to have died off Libya in the first nine months of 2021, but that number is believed to be higher, according to the United Nations migration agency.
Hundreds of migrants were seen in photos posted on social media on Friday by the Home Office sitting together in a plaza with the collection and return center sign in the background.
Other images of Qaraqish that purport to show migrants appear with their hands tied behind their backs. An aerial photo showed men lying face down on the ground at a crossroads with military trucks and guards around them.
RAE