Libyan coast guards rescued at least 270 migrants off the country’s shores yesterday, a Navy official said. The Arab and African migrants, who included women and children, were found at sea in an area between the coastal towns of Garabulli and Zliten, east of the capital, Tripoli, and were taken to a naval base.
The latest mission brings the total number of migrants rescued by Libyan coast guards to more than 450 in less than a week.
‘We were lost and didn’t know where to direct our boat,’ Omar Yusef, a Sudanese migrant said. ‘We called the coast guard and a helicopter came and guided us.’
Doctors from the UN migration agency and UNHCR received them at the naval base to provide medical assistance before immigration control transferred them to a Tripoli detention centre.
