By Riches Soberekon
A Libyan court has handed down heavy sentences to 37 people accused of human trafficking that caused the deaths of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean secretly to reach European shores.
The Court of Appeal in Al-Bayda, handed down its verdict against “persons belonging to a criminal gang who organised the departure by sea while illegal migrants were on board in a dilapidated boat, resulting in the death of 11 of them”, according to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office.
Five of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, nine to 15 years’ imprisonment, and the others to one year’s imprisonment.
The prosecutor’s office, which did not specify the identity or nationality of the accused, said that the sentences were handed down after a trial that lasted several months.
The case is the latest in a series of high-profile prosecutions of human traffickers in Libya. In 2018, a court in Tripoli sentenced 20 people to death for their role in the deaths of 20 migrants who were found suffocated in a truck in the desert.
Libya is a major transit point for tens of thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe, the majority from sub-Saharan African countries. As a result of the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising, the North African country has become a hub for human trafficking on the continent.
The sentences handed down by the Court of Appeal in Al-Bayda are a sign that the Libyan authorities are taking the issue of human trafficking seriously. However, more needs to be done to crack down on the networks of traffickers who are exploiting migrants and putting their lives at risk.
