Officials
say they discovered seven bodies of African migrants who died from suffocation after being locked
for two days in a refrigerated truck that was abandoned
by people smugglers on
the Libyan coast.
Adel
Mostafa, an anti-illegal migration official in Tripoli, said that 28 others,
including five women, were rescued on Sunday when the truck was discovered at
Garabulli, a town some 50 km east of Tripoli that is a common departure point
for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
“We got a
call from a civilian who reported that he could hear voices coming from a
truck, which he believed contained Africans, based on their language,” Mostafa
said.
The
survivors said they had been left there by smugglers, according to Hosni Abu
Ayana, a second official at the Tripoli detention centre to which they were
brought.
The migrants
said the truck driver left the vehicle at the side of the road after unknown
gunmen began firing at the tyres.
Libya is the
main gateway for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.
The North
African country slipped into turmoil after its 2011 uprising and migrant
smugglers operate with impunity, packing people onto ill-equipped boats that
often sink or break down.
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