On Friday evening Libyan authorities arbitrarily detained at least 500 African migrants, including women and children, two officials and a refugee group claimed.
The authorities described the raid as part of a crackdown on illegal migration but made no mention of any traffickers or smugglers being arrested.
Libya’s Interior Ministry said the migrants were rounded up in the western town of Gargaresh and were taken to detention centres in Tripoli. According to human rights activists these places are rife with abuse and migrants are kept in miserable conditions.
The Ministry did not say how many migrants were detained. Gargaresh, a well-known hub for migrants and refugees, is about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) West of Tripoli, the Libyan capital.
Dax Roque, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Director in Libya, expressed his concerns over the detentions, saying the arrested migrants are at risk of abuse and ill-treatment. “Torture, sexual violence, and extortion is rampant in Libyan detention centres,” he said.
“We believe this latest wave of arrests is part of wider crackdown by the Libyan authorities on migrants and refugees in Libya and the environment is becoming increasingly more restrictive,” he added.
“We call on the Libyan authorities to immediately release those detained and to end the crackdown on migrants and refugees taking place across the country. Countries with ties to Libya, particularly European states must also scale up pathways for resettlement of refugees in Libya,” the Director added.
For years Libya has been a hub for African and Middle Eastern migrants fleeing war and poverty in their homelands and hoping for a better life in Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed long-time leader Moammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Traffickers have exploited the chaos and often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber or wooden boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route. Thousands have drowned along the way, and others have been intercepted and returned to Libya.
Those returned to shore have been taken to government-run detention centres, where they are often abused and extorted for ransom under the very nose of United Nations (UN) officials.