Security forces in eastern Libya freed at least 385 Pakistani migrants who were being held in trafficking warehouses in an overnight raid.
In a raid, the migrants, including children, were released from the warehouses in the al-Khueir area, around 8 kilometres south of the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk. They were later transferred to a nearby police headquarters.
Esreiwa Salah, an activist with the migrant rights group Al-Abreen, told the Associated Press that the Pakistani migrants had arrived in Libya intending to travel to Europe.
However, they were detained by smugglers who demanded a ransom for their release. No further details were given.
Libya is the main transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to reach Europe.
The country has been in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime Muammar Gaddafi.
Human traffickers have exploited the chaos in Libya to smuggle migrants across borders from six countries, including Egypt, Algeria, and Sudan.
They then pack desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe into ill-equipped rubber boats and other vessels for risky voyages across the perilous Central Mediterranean Sea route.—AP
