29 Migrants Found Dead in Libya

At least 29 bodies of migrants have been recovered in two locations in the southeast and west of Libya, a security directorate and the Libyan Red Crescent said.

The Alwahat district Security Directorate said in a statement that 19 bodies were discovered in a mass grave in a farm in Jikharra area, some 441 kilometres from Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, and said the deaths were related to smuggling activites.

Libya has turned into a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean. At the end of January, the Alwahat Criminal Investigation Department said it had freed 263 migrants from different Sub-Saharan nationalities, saying they were being held by a smuggling gang in extremely poor human and health conditions.