Egyptian illegal immigrants released after being held hostages in Libya

CAIRO – 11 March 2021: A Libyan military unit announced on Wednesday that it had liberated 120 immigrants, most of them from Egypt, after being held as hostages by human traffickers in Beni Walid, western Libya, Al Arabiya net reported Thursday.

 

“Our forces managed to release a number of hostages in Bani Walid. The military forces raided other hideouts of human traffickers,” the 444th combat brigade said in a statement, adding that the hostages were subjected to torture and extortion, according to their testimony.

 

 

 

 

Late December 2020, the Egyptian authorities found the bodies of seven Egyptians who drowned while attempting to illegally migrate through the Mediterranean. The bodies were detected off the coast of Saloum city western the country. That is two days after the bodies of three Egyptian children of one family were found by the Libyan coast guards as their parents were trying to illegally migrate from Western Libya. The bodies of the parents have not been found.

 

Egypt has not recorded any case of illegal immigration since 2016 according to Egypt’s presidency spokesperson Bassam Rady.

 

 Lat year, a boat carrying dozens of illegal migrants capsized off Libyan coasts resulting in 100 victims in November. The UN refugee agency stated in February that the total number of migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard in January rose 121 percent from the same period last year.