Security forces arrested six human traffickers who ran a house prison in Kufra and referred them to prosecutors.
Libyan authorities say they raided a secret prison in a southeastern city used by human traffickers and eventually freed 156 African migrants – including 15 women and five children.
The raid in Kufra city came on February 16 after a migrant managed to escape a house last week and report to authorities that he and other migrants were being held and tortured by human traffickers there, the security bureau said Kufra with.
Security forces arrested at least six human traffickers and referred them to prosecutors for further investigation on Sunday.
The rescued migrants from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan were taken to an animal shelter where they were given food, clothes and blankets.
156 migrants were rescued from human traffickers in the southeastern city of Kufra by Libyan authorities [Kufra Security Directorate/Facebook]The raid shows the dangers that refugees and migrants face in conflict-ridden Libya, which has emerged as an integral transit point for African and Arab migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe.
After the 2011 uprising, in which longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed, Libya fell into chaos. The country is divided into an internationally recognized government based in the capital Tripoli and a rival government in the east of the country.
Traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos, often packing desperate families into ill-equipped rubber boats that stop and perish on the dangerous Mediterranean route.
Thousands have drowned along the way while others are locked up in dirty smugglers’ pens or overcrowded prisons.
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