The spokesman for the Libyan Naval Forces, Masoud Ibrahim, revealed that hundreds of migrants were rescued from drowning near the Libyan western coast, after they boarded rubber boats to flee across the Mediterranean.
A security official in the naval forces told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper: “There is a large influx these days by migrants, who are being pushed by human smuggling gangs to the sea, because they believe that they can ignore the surveillance patrols and sneak out stealthily.”
The official expected a significant increase in the number of immigrants during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday. However, he stressed that the Coast Guard forces are conducting a continuous search and rescue operation to prevent such an influx.
The security official added to the newspaper that there are great efforts being made to confront these gangs, which operate in the cities of Zuwara, Garabulli, Sabratha and Al-Zawiya, and aim to entrap immigrants, obtaining from them huge sums of money in return for their transfer to the European coast, but usually they are abandoned and left at sea facing death.
