On Monday, the Commander of the Kufra-based Subul Al-Salam Brigade of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Abdel-Rahman Hashem received several Libyan nationals who were recently-released from Egyptian prisons.
During the meeting, the released Libyan Prisoners voiced their “great thanks and gratitude to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and to Brigadier General Saddam Haftar, Commander of the Tariq bin Ziyad Brigade, for their rapid response to the appeals of the prisoners’ mothers and their children.”
The Egyptian authorities had imprisoned the Libyan nationals on charges of infiltrating Egyptian territory. Their families stressed that they had simply lost their way, during their return trip from Sudan. The families had repeatedly demanded the release of their sons, or their deportation to Libyan prisons.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has estimated the number of migrants and host community members in Egypt to be 9,115,929 from 133 countries.
It noted that these comprise of Sudanese (4 million), Syrians (1.5 million), Yemenis (1 million), and Libyans (1 million). These four nationalities constitute 80% of the international migrants currently residing in the country.
The IOM said earlier this week that 3,897 migrants were intercepted in the Mediterranean and returned to Libya, in 2023. It added that 236 migrants died at sea, while 174 people were missing. Among those intercepted were 99 children and 181 women.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants seeking a better quality of life in Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime Libyan autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libyan cities, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders with six nations. The migrants are then packed into ill-equipped rubber boats and other vessels and set off on risky sea voyages.
