Kufra, July 31(Darfur 24)
Libya’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency announced on Thursday the rescue of approximately 50 Sudanese refugees who were stranded in the Libyan desert, 450 kilometers south of the city of Kufra, near the Sudanese border.
A relative of the survivors told Darfur 24 that they had set out from the town of Hamrat al-Sheikh in North Kordofan State in mid-July, but the drivers who transported them to the desert abandoned them in a remote area for more than three days, then went back to Sudan.
He added that Libyan desert patrols were able to apprehend the drivers and return them to the location where the families had been abandoned.
He indicated that the group included several women, infants, and the elderly. The smugglers used four Tundra and Ascot vehicles in the smuggling operation.
The Security Media Office of the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency reported on its official Facebook page, in a post seen by Darfur 24, that the agency’s southeastern branch was able to rescue a number of families and children of illegal imigrants after they had been abandoned in difficult humanitarian conditions by smugglers deep in the desert.
The office explained that field patrols detected the distressed families and intervened urgently to provide assistance. They were transferred to security checkpoints, where they were placed under direct protection until legal and humanitarian procedures were completed.
The office indicated that a number of migrants who had abandoned their families and children were arrested and forced to return under the supervision of security services. It confirmed that investigations are still ongoing, and that additional details will be announced later.
This incident is one of six cases in which Sudanese missing persons have been found in the Libyan desert during the past period.
Libya hosts thousands of Sudanese refugees in several cities, including Kufra, Benghazi, and Ajdabiya in the east, and Misrata and Tripoli in the west.