On Sunday, Libya’s Ministry of Interior announced that 40 illegal Egyptian migrants were arrested in the Buwairat Al-Hasun area, west of Sirte by law enforcement patrols.
The migrants were reportedly preparing to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, the statement noted.
The Ministry of Interior stated that “all necessary legal procedures were taken against the migrants, and they were handed over to the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency for further action.”
Last month, the eastern Libyan authorities arrested an Egyptian family on charges of forging Libyan identities, and obtaining Libyan passports and election cards.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said that an Egyptian man and his son were arrested at Benghazi’s Benina International Airport, “because there were no data registered of them on the airport passport system, although they hold Libyan passports.”
During the initial interrogation at the airport, the father claimed that he is a Libyan national and had his identity papers, but left them in his home in Benghazi. The police went to the suspect’s house and interrogated his other son, who admitted that his father was an Egyptian citizen, and had changed his name.
The son added that those mentioned in the family book are not related to him, but are involved in the forgery process, and does not know them. The son who was arrested at the airport corroborated the story.
At the home, the police found bank transactions, personal cards, and driver’s licenses. The man admitted that he was Egyptian, and had forged the documents by paying sums of money to a Libyan group.
He added that eight other people had obtained Libyan passports, and were listed in his family book.
A search is underway for the suspects, and the authorities issued a circular to all security checkpoints and outlets to arrest them.
Earlier, eastern Libyan forces deported thousands of Egyptians who were residing illegally, sending them back to Egypt on foot across the land border, Egyptian and Libyan security sources told Reuters.
The Libyan security source told Reuters that 4,000 migrants had been found during raids on human traffickers, following a shootout between security forces and smugglers.
The Egyptian security source said only about 2,200 of the 4,000 migrants who were found by Libyan security forces were there illegally, and they were the only ones deported. Most of them were Egyptians, but some held other African nationalities.
“When they were deported, they were taken to a location close to the border, and then walked about 2 km into Egypt,” the Egyptian security source added.
