Over 200 arrest warrants issued for human traffickers in Libya

Libya has issued over 200 arrest warrants for Libyans and foreigners suspected of being involved in smuggling migrants to Europe and related crimes.

“We have 205 arrest warrants for people (involved in) organising immigration operations, human trafficking, (cases) of torture, murder and rape,” said Sadiq al-Sour, the director of the attorney general’s investigations office in a recent press briefing.

Al-Sour said members of Libya’s security services, officials at detention camps, and embassy officials from African countries based in Libya are suspected of being involved in the human trafficking network.

If people are found to be involved in human trafficking, selling or torture of people, facilitating the illegal entry of migrants or sending migrants to sea on unsafe vessels, they could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

A UN report by a panel of experts released earlier this year had alleged that Libya’s security forces were colluding with human smugglers. “Armed groups, which were party to larger political-military coalitions, have specialised in illegal smuggling activities, notably human smuggling and trafficking,” the experts reported.

The Special Deterrence Force (SDF), an armed group affiliated with the Tripoli based government’s interior ministry and tasked with policing and security functions, including investigation of human traffickers and the arrest of illegal migrants, was reported by the panel as having handed migrants over to smugglers in exchange for cash.

The suspicions in the UN report were confirmed by the attorney general’s investigator who said that elements within the agency were accused of releasing migrants in exchange for money or selling them to traffickers.