Libyan security authorities in Tripoli stated that “many foreign criminals have been arrested on charges of drug and arms trafficking, in an expanded security campaign south of the capital.”
The Security Directorate Support Agency, in cooperation with the Agency for Combating Illegal Immigration and the 111th Brigade, launched a security campaign targeting a camp for irregular migrants.
Several foreign groups live in this camp, and reportedly are part of a drug trafficking ring, under the protection of armed groups.
“The policemen were able to apprehend a number of criminals and drug and weapons dealers of different nationalities,” the statement said.
It added that the security authorities “will strike with an iron fist anyone who tries to harm the security of the homeland or the citizens.”
For its part, the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency in Tripoli announced that it had begun procedures for deporting the arrested immigrants. It is also coordinating with the Chadian Embassy to issue travel documents for the purpose of deporting their nationals.
“Those criminally wanted will also be referred to the Public Prosecution to take legal action against them,” the statement concluded.
Notably, over 12,000 detainees are being held in unofficial prisons and detention facilities across Libya. Thousands more are held illegally and often in “inhumane conditions in facilities controlled by armed groups or `secret’ facilities,” according to a report presented to the UN Security Council.
The report, which was delivered to the UN Security Council prior to the latest briefing by the UN Special Envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, monitors the political, security, and economic developments in Libya from December to March.
The report also cited official statistics provided by the judicial police, and according to it, “the number of detainees in official detention centers, including those in pretrial detention, amounted to 19,730 as of March.”
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said in the report that the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) “continues to document cases of arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, and other violations of international law in facilities operated by the government and other groups.”
“Female and male migrants and refugees continued to face heightened risks of rape, sexual harassment, and trafficking by armed groups, transnational smugglers and traffickers. As well as officials from the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, which operates under the Ministry of Interior,” he said.
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.
