A Tunisian worker has been kidnapped in the Al-Ain Al-Sokhouna region on the Tunisian-Libyan border on Sunday, said the President of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, Mustapha Abdelkebir.
Abdelkebir told Shams FM news that the Tunisian authorities are in talks with Libyan parties, in order to identify those involved in the kidnapping.
There are numerous kidnapping cases reported in Libya. Most of them are motivated by ransom from the victim’s family.
Earlier this week, four Pakistani migrants were reportedly kidnapped by human traffickers, their families told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
The kidnappers asked for a ransom of 5.6 million Rupees to be paid for their safe release. The abductees were identified as Aamir Hayat, Waleed Khan, Bilal Khan and Afzal Junaid, aged between 22 to 25 years.
Their family’s claimed they had sold their land to finance their journey to Italy. They said they paid about 7.2 million Rupees to an agent, who promised the youth they would be taken to Europe via Libya.
The brother of Aamir Hayat, said, “we are not aware who the agent was, but we were lured and deceived with assurances that our relatives will reach Europe at any cost.”
However, he said when the youth reached the Libyan coast about three months ago, they were held by the group and sent to a jail on the outskirts of Tripoli.
The families said a few youths from the area had succeeded in reaching Europe, and the agent used that “success” to attract the parents to pay.
Saeedullah Jan, father of Bilal Khan, appealed to the Pakistani High Commissioner in Libya to help release the four men, as they did not have enough money to free them.
They recalled that another four Pakistani youths were burnt to death when their boat caught fire mid-sea, in the first week of October, when they set out to Italy.