Desert search goes on as three Egyptian illegals found, two of them dead

By Hadi Fornaji.

Tripoli, 29 October 2013:

One suspected Egyptian illegal migrant was rescued and two more were found dead, as the search . . .[restrict]continued for up to 100 more individuals who were apparently abandoned in the desert by their people-smuggler escorts.

The saved Egyptian was in the desert to the south of the B11 highway between Ajdabia and Tobruk. The Egyptian foreign ministry confirmed to the Cairo-based Al-Ahram that the bodies of the two other men were found not far away.

It remains unclear if the location was near the checkpoint at Wadi Sahl, where on Sunday night, security forces spotted vehicles trying to bypass their position by moving through the desert. In the ensuing chase, one illegal immigrant was shot dead and 14 others were injured when one vehicle crashed and overturned.

The search for the missing men is being coordinated through the Egyptian consulate in Benghazi and the embassy in Tripoli. It involves many of the same team of diplomats who worked to find the kidnapped Egyptian truckers last week.

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