Tripoli, 29 April;
Some 50 illegal immigrants were captured on Saturday evening by forces from the Supreme Security Commission of the oasis . . .[restrict]town of Tazirbu, some 320 kilometres from Kufra. They were part of a larger group of 250 illegal immigrants, the rest of whom managed to escape towards Jalu, Owjela and Ajdabiya.
Those captured were said to be from Mali, Chad and Niger. But at the same time many more managed to flee towards, north of the country,
A source in Kufra said that the arrest came as a result of a report received from the residents of Tazirbu stating that illegal immigrants were hiding in farms around the region.
He added that preliminary investigations suggested the possibility of the immigrants being ex-fighters in Qaddafi’s brigades.
The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said some of thos captured had Libyan passports issued in Tripoli on 14 June 2011. This was a time when no passports were generally being issued. The sources added that some of the men were suffering severe health conditions but the majority were in good health. He said that the Security Committee was transfering them that evening to Ajdabiya because there was no food or shelter for them locally.
In a telephone conversation with Abdel-Samee Asbaiq, deputy head of the Security Committee of Tazirbu, the source said that around 200 of the illegal immigrants had headed north after they were chased by the security committee forces in the area of Tazrbu. He also reporetd that during investigations, a number of those captured had claimed that they had been transported across Libya by Tebu tribesmen from Ribyana region, some 160 kilometres from Kufra. [/restrict]
