Migrants still detained after airstrike

TRIPOLI - Hundreds of migrants were held on Thursday in a detention center days after it was hit by an airstrike that killed 44 people, amid outrage over the plight of those still trapped in Libya.

The announcement by a United Nations' agency came as the internationally recognized government based in the capital Tripoli said it is considering closing migrant detention centers in the North African country.

The Government of National Accord "is currently reviewing the closure of shelters and the release of illegal migrants to ensure their safety and security", GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bachagha said.

The GNA does not have the capacity to protect migrants from air raids, Bachagha said during a meeting with Maria do Valle Ribeiro, assistant to the UN special envoy to Libya, the ministry said.

At least 44 migrants were killed and more than 130 were wounded on Tuesday night in the airstrike that targeted a hangar in a detention center in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura.

On Thursday, around 300 migrants from among the center's original 600 detainees were still being held there, the International Organization for Migration said.

They were receiving humanitarian assistance from the IOM, said Safa Msehli, communications director for the UN agency in Libya.

Msehli was unable to confirm reports that dozens of migrants had fled on Tuesday night after the raid in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura which also left 130 wounded.

The UN's humanitarian office OCHA, quoting survivors, said guards at the center fired on migrants trying to flee causing no casualties, but the GNA Interior Ministry denied this as "rumors and false information".

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 07/06/2019 page8)