UN agency: Libyan navy intercepts over 80 EU-bound migrants
The U.N. migration agency says Libya’s coast guard intercepted more than 80 Europe-bound migrants in the Mediterranean Sea off the country's coast
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Libya’s coast guard intercepted on Friday more than 80 Europe-bound migrants in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the North African country, the U.N. migration agency said.
The migrants were returned to Libyan soil, said the International Organization for Migration. They will most likely be held under dire conditions in detention centers that Libya has become notorious for.
“So far this year, some 300 people, including women and children, were returned to the country and ended up in detention,” said the IOM. “We reiterate that no one should be returned to Libya.”
The IOM posted photographs on Twitter showing its staff members speaking with mostly African male migrants on a Libyan pier.
This was the second interception off Libya in as many days. Late Thursday, the IOM said the Libyan navy returned to Libya another 86 migrants, including seven women and 19 children, who were intercepted earlier in the Mediterranean.
In the years since the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, war-torn Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Smugglers often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route.
On Tuesday, a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe capsized in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya, and at least 43 people drowned. The tragedy marked the first maritime disaster in 2021 involving migrants seeking better lives in Europe. The IOM had cited survivors as saying that the dead were all men from West African nations.
In recent years, the EU has partnered with Libya’s coast guard and other local groups to stem such dangerous sea crossings. Rights groups, however, say those policies leave migrants at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers rife with abuses.
Also on Friday, SOS Mediterranee, tweeted that its rescue ship Ocean Viking, found and rescued two rubber boats in distress, carrying 140 people, including women and children. Earlier, Alarm Phone, a crisis hotline for migrants tweeted that these two boats had taken off from Libyan shores.