21 illegal migrants arrested in Libya

Tripoli, April 28 A group of 21 illegal migrants was arrested off the coast of Garrabulli, nearly 55 km east of Libya's capital Tripoli, the Libyan government said.

"After searches and investigations, the patrols managed to thwart an illegal immigration operation and arrested 21 illegal immigrants inside a house used for illegal immigration work in Garrabulli," the Libyan Interior Ministry's Special Operation Department said in a statement on Facebook on Thursday.

The arrested migrants are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and India, the statement added.

The Libyan Coast Guard on Tuesday announced that it had rescued a total of 61 illegal migrants and recovered the bodies of 11 others, including a child, off the coast of Garrabulli, Xinhua news agency reported.

Because of the insecurity and chaos in the country since the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, many migrants, mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores from Libya.

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