Officials in Libya have issued arrest warrants for over 200 Libyans and foreigners believed to have been involved in a smuggling syndicate abusing African migrants trying to get to Europe.
The director of the attorney general’s investigations office, Seddik al-Sour, said on Thursday that “We have 205 arrest warrants for people (involved in) organising immigration operations, human trafficking, (cases) of torture, murder and rape”.
Sour claimed that the trafficking syndicate had security service officials, leaders of migrant detention camps, and embassy officials from African countries based in Libya.
Libya’s attorney general’s office has said that investigations into smuggling networks are currently ongoing with the support of Italy’s prosecutors.
There is also an established link between the said smugglers syndicate and Islamic State group jihadists.
Libya since Moammar Gaddafi’s overthrow has become a hub for slave trade as Africans hoping to cross the Mediterranean into Europe are subjected to inhumane treatments and sold in slave markets.
Efforts are however ongoing to ensure that the North African country holds presidential and parliamentary elections by the end of this year but the UN envoy Ghassan Salame has said that conditions are not yet ready for polling.
Source: Africafeeds.com
