Hundreds of migrants detained by Libyan coastguards in last two days -UN

The United Nation (UN) has informed that over the past two days, Libya’s coastguard have intercepted about 400 Europe-bound migrants (refugees & asylum seekers) off the country’s Mediterranean coast.

This was revealed on Monday by Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), who said the refugees and asylum seekers were taken to the al-Nasser detention facility in the town of Zawya, west of Tripoli.

The UN refugee agency in Libya said two people died of the 315 who were intercepted and returned to Tripoli early on Monday. Their bodies were recovered at sea, it added.

About 85 other migrants were captured earlier by the Libyan coastguard, bringing the total to about 1,000 people who have attempted the crossing this month.

Mselhi said departures from Libya have increased, which is “especially worrying amid a sharp decrease in … search and rescue capacity”.