The Libyan authority has announced the arrest of 3 Libyans who are suspected to have killed a Nigerian migrant worker by setting him on fire in Tripoli.
While making the disclosure on Wednesday, October 7, 2020, the Tripoli-based Interior Ministry confirmed the arrest of the 3 suspects, in what a U.N. agency described as another senseless crime against migrants in the country.
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The Libyan Country Chief for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN migration agency, Federico Soda, said that those responsible for the crime must be held accountable.
This is coming on the heels of a report earlier yesterday, that a migrant worker was burned to death in the Libyan capital, Tripoli—the latest of abuses that migrants and refugees face in the conflict-stricken country.
It was revealed that the 3 Libyans on Tuesday stormed a factory where African migrants were working. The Libyans detained one of the workers, who was a Nigerian, poured petrol on him and set him on fire with no clear motive yet for the shocking crime.
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According to the IOM, there are about half a million migrants in Libya, with some of them having worked in the oil-producing country before it descended into chaos and warfare, and others attempting to travel through it to Europe.
The IOM and the United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR), U.N. refugee agency have both repeatedly said that Libya should not be classified as being safe for migrants.
Thousands of migrants, including Nigerians, have attempted the very dangerous sea crossing to Europe this year, with hundreds drowning quite often in shipwrecks.
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In July, three migrants from Sudan were shot dead by Libyan authorities while trying to flee detention after they were disembarked in Khums.
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In May, some 30 mostly Bangladeshi migrants were shot dead in a southern desert town, after being abducted by a local gang, according to Bangladesh and the Libyan Interior Ministry at the time.
