At least 107 migrants including women and children have been freed from captivity in a town in southeast Libya, a security force spokesman said on May 6.
Walid Alorafi, spokesman for the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Benghazi, said according to some migrants, they were held in captivity for up to seven months and "they wanted to go to Europe." CID posted video footage of their force demolishing the house where the migrants were held. Other footage included shots of migrants with torture marks on their bodies. Some migrants were seen being carried toward an ambulance by aid workers.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via the dangerous route across the desert and over the Mediterranean following the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. In March, the International Organization for Migration said at least 65 migrants' bodies had been discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya by CID.
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