Libyan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdelmonem Al-Arabi said they had started an investigation into the incident of the killing of illegal immigrants in Sabratha, confirming that the city’s security directorate detained five Ethiopians who are believed to have information about the circumstances of the incident.
Al-Arabi indicated in a statement to Libya Al-Ahrar TV that six illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were treated by medical teams after they had survived the burning of the boat at sea.
Al-Arabi also said that the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for District Affairs, Bashir Al-Amin, directed an immediate investigation and assigned a member of the Sabratha Prosecution Office to start probing the incident.
Sabratha municipality and elders have denounced the incident off the city’s shores and called on the security authorities to arrest the perpetrators.
The Libyan Red Crescent in Sabratha announced on Friday that its team of volunteers found 15 bodies, some burnt, on a boat off the shore and washed up on the beach, adding that the bodies were for illegal immigrants who were trying to reach Europe through Libya via smuggling and human trafficking networks.
