Murder 15 illegal immigrantshot by smugglers, inside the boat that was carrying them, before setting their bodies on fire, on the coast of the Libyan city of Sabratha, in the west of the country.
The Libyan Red Crescent said, in a statement on Friday, that “following finding a boat carrying charred corpses and 15 intact bodies outside the boat, the volunteers of the Libyan Red Crescent, Sabratha branch, moved to the place, and all the bodies were recovered and placed in the hospital refrigerator to complete the rest of the legal procedures.”
Common pictures of the remains of the boat
The Red Crescent did not reveal the identity of the victims or the causes of their death, but local media confirmed that they belonged to illegal immigrants, who were shot dead, due to a dispute between two smugglers over money, which prompted one of them to shoot and kill the 15 migrants, then set fire to the The boat they were on, to burn them all.
Activists posted on social media pictures of the boat at the moment of its burning, as smoke appeared to rise from it, and they also published other pictures of its remains following it was burned, and of the bodies lying on the beach and burned to a large extent.
Pictures of the burning boat
The International Rescue Committee described the killing of illegal immigrants on the coast of the city of Sabratha as “shocking”, and called for the expansion of the European Union’s operations in the Mediterranean to protect them.
This incident sheds light on the phenomenon of trafficking in illegal immigrants in Libya, whose smuggling operations to Europe continue through the western coasts of the country, especially through the city of Sabratha.
And the killings of migrants at the hands of smuggling gangs are frequent in Libya, where smugglers had previously killed 12 illegal migrants in the city of Bani Walid, western Libya, when they were trying to escape, and dozens of other migrants died, asphyxiated in a closed transport truck in Zuwara. Western Libya, because of the long period of stay inside.
