Migrants commune connected the platform of the Geo Barents, a rescue vas operated by MSF (Doctors Without Borders) disconnected Libya, successful the cardinal Mediterranean route, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Ahmed Hatem)

Migrants commune connected the platform of the Geo Barents, a rescue vas operated by MSF (Doctors Without Borders) disconnected Libya, successful the cardinal Mediterranean route, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Ahmed Hatem) (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

CAIRO – A large crackdown successful occidental Libya resulted successful the detention of 4,000 migrants, including hundreds of women and children, officials said Saturday.

The raids took spot Friday successful the occidental municipality of Gargaresh arsenic portion of what authorities described arsenic a information run against amerciable migration and cause trafficking. The Interior Ministry, which led the crackdown, made nary notation of immoderate traffickers oregon smugglers being arrested.

Officials said Friday that 500 amerciable migrants had been detained but connected Saturday reported that fig had reached 4,000.

Gargaresh, a known hub for migrants and refugees, is astir 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) westbound of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The municipality has seen respective waves of raids connected migrants implicit the years, but the latest 1 was described by activists arsenic the fiercest truthful far.

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Since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has emerged arsenic the ascendant transit constituent for migrants fleeing warfare and poorness successful Africa and the Middle East, hoping for a amended beingness successful Europe. Human traffickers person benefited from the chaos successful the oil-rich federation and smuggled migrants done the country’s lengthy borderline with six nations. They past battalion hopeless migrants into ill-equipped rubber boats successful risky voyages done the perilous Central Mediterranean Sea route.

The detained were gathered successful a installation successful Tripoli called the Collection and Return Center, said constabulary Col. Nouri al-Grettli, caput of the center.

He said the migrants person been distributed to detention centers successful Tripoli and surrounding towns. Libya’s detention facilities are miserable places wherever migrants person suffered from abuses and terrible ill-treatment, according to rights activists.

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A authorities authoritative said authorities would “deport arsenic galore arsenic possible” of the migrants to their location countries. He said galore of the detained had lived illegally successful Libya for years. The authoritative spoke connected information of anonymity due to the fact that helium was not authorized to little the media.

Tarik Lamloum, a Libyan activistic moving with the Belaady Organization for Human Rights, said the raids progressive quality rights violations against the migrants, particularly successful the mode immoderate women and children were detained. He did not elaborate.

Lamloum said galore detained migrants person been registered with the U.N. exile bureau UNHCR, arsenic refugees oregon asylum-seekers. The UNHCR did not contiguous respond to a petition for comment.

Hundreds of migrants were seen successful images posted connected societal media Friday by the Interior Ministry sitting clustered unneurotic successful a gait with the banner of the Collection and Return Center successful the background.

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Other images from Gargaresh purporting to amusement migrants amusement them with their hands tied down their backs. An aerial photograph showed men lying look down connected the crushed astatine a crossroads, with subject trucks and guards astir them.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.