CAIRO (AP) — Libya's coast guard has intercepted dozens of Europe-bound migrants on a boat and returned them to land, authorities said Saturday, days after the shipwreck off the North African country left nearly two dozen people dead or missing.
The boat, carrying 64 migrants, was intercepted on Friday off the northwestern city of Sirte, according to the Sirte coast guard, who posted photos on Facebook showing dozens of migrants being returned, including at least one woman and a child. The coast guard also set the migrant boat on fire to prevent it being reused by traffickers.
On Wednesday, a boat carrying 32 migrants from Egypt and Syria capsized off the coast of the eastern Libyan town of Tobruk, leaving 22 missing and presumed dead. The Libyan coast guard said it had rescued nine people and found one body.
Libya, which borders six countries and sits on the Mediterranean Sea, was plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since then, the oil-rich country has emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life in Europe.
Traffickers have exploited Libya's turmoil in recent years to smuggle migrants across the country's long border, crammed into dinghies and other ill-equipped boats for the dangerous voyage to Europe.
At least 434 people were reported killed off the coast of Libya between January and August this year, 611 went missing and more than 14,100 migrants were intercepted and returned to shore, according to the International Organization for Migration's Missing Migrants Project.
The detained migrants are held in government-run detention facilities where forced labor, beatings, rape, torture and other acts amounting to crimes against humanity, UN-commissioned investigators say. These abuses are often accompanied by attempts to extort money from the migrants' families before either releasing the imprisoned migrants or sending them on traffickers' boats out of Libya to Europe.
