UN agencies said on Monday they were trying to provide urgent help to large numbers of migrants held and then stranded in the smuggling hub of Sabratha as rival factions battled for control of the city. The migrants who have since been rounded up were being held at sites that the group had controlled, local officials said. Some migrants are being sent on to detention centers elsewhere in western Libya that are nominally under the control of the Tripoli government. IOM officials say those centers, which were housing some 5,000 migrants, risk being overwhelmed by the new arrivals. The UNHCR said it had approached Libyan authorities to ensure that refugees among the migrants were freed from detention.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 09, 2017 22:30 UTC