Numerous individuals have been convicted accountable by a Libyan court for loading migrants onto a shoddy boat that capsized while sailing to Italy.
Following the deaths of 11 migrants whose boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, a court in eastern Libya has sentenced 37 people to prison for human trafficking.
Five of the accused received life sentences from the Al-Bayda court of appeals, while nine others were given 15 years in prison. The remainder were given one-year terms.
According to a statement from the public prosecutor’s office, which was cited by local media on Tuesday, the defendants were a part of a network that smuggled migrants from Libya to Europe. They were charged with orchestrating the 11 fatal migrant crossings in a shoddy vessel headed for Italy.
The precise time of the fatal occurrence was not given.
According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), the North African nation has become one of the most perilous entry points for individuals trying to reach Europe by sea after Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011 with support from the West.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which includes Libya, recorded approximately 3,800 fatalities on migratory routes in 2022 alone, according to data from the IOM Missing Migrants Project.
A boat that purportedly began in Egypt but loaded passengers in Libya sank last month in the Mediterranean Sea close to the Greek shore, leaving hundreds of migrants thought dead.
SOS Mediterranee, a European marine humanitarian group, said in April that 92 migrants who were trying to reach Europe were saved off the coast of Libya.
In addition to maritime fatalities, Libya had the greatest rate of fatalities on land routes in North Africa in 2022, according to the UN migration agency.
