Libyan authorities have arrested two suspected kidnappers and forced more than 50 Egyptian people to return home, officials said.
Thirty-three Egyptians arrived at Cairo International Airport on a special flight on Sunday after Libyan embassy officials in Tripoli arrested them for trying to sail to Europe a few weeks ago, Egypt’s foreign ministry said.
The arrests and returnees of those who wanted to migrate came amid a dangerous crossing and attempted crossing from northern Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.
Libya’s highest court says on Sunday a suspected smuggler, known on social media as Haj Hakeem, was arrested on suspicion of holding and torturing Egyptian immigrants for ransom.
The office said in its statement that the suspect also faces charges of kidnapping and directing crossings at sea. Opponents ordered to remain in custody and issued documents in favor of others not mentioned in the statement.
Included with the words were photographs showing the protesters saying the immigrants to Egypt were naked with their hands tied behind their backs. At least three unidentified individuals appear to have been beaten and tortured.
A suspected Somali smuggler, Hassan Qeidi, was arrested later this week, the prosecutor’s office said.
He said Qeidi was facing charges, including leading a group of traffickers inside and outside Libya. He is also charged with murdering a number of immigrants, harassing migrant women, and harassing immigrants to provide for their families.
It was not possible to reach their family members or the lawyers for the two cases.
Libya has for many years been the capital of migrants to Africa and the Middle East who are fleeing war and poverty in their countries and hope to have a better life in Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed coup that overthrew and assassinated long-time independent Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Merchants have resorted to violence and often transported poor families on stilts or wooden boats that stop and establish a dangerous central Mediterranean route. Thousands of people are on the road. Merchants have been affected by the persecution of refugees, including torture and detention for ransom.
There have been difficulties in crossing and trying to cross, especially from Libya and Tunisia in recent months. Libyan coast officials have arrested thousands of people.
The US Immigration Commission has said that more than 23,580 deportees have returned to Libya so far this year, despite repeated warnings from human rights activists watching what is happening in the North African region.
At least 1,100 migrants are said to have died or are thought to have died in several shipwrecks and shipwrecks in Libya in 2021, the International Organization for Migration said earlier this month.
The European Union has in recent years joined forces with Libya to prevent refugees from embarking on a dangerous sea voyage to Europe. Human rights groups say the experiment has left migrants in custody or detained in illegal prisons without adequate food and water.
A 2019 Associated Press study found that Libyan military forces are harassing, extorting and torturing migrants at UN prisons, often in companies that receive millions of European funds from the Libyan government to reduce migration waves in the Mediterranean.