On Friday the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations organization that deals with migration, he said of having discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of at least 65 migrants in a desert area of western Libya. For the moment, the identities and nationalities of the migrants are not known, nor the circumstances of their deaths. However, it is likely that they died during a human trafficking operation.
The IOM said the discovery of the mass grave demonstrates the need to build a coordinated response to migrant smuggling and create safe and legal migration routes. The Libyan government, meanwhile, announced that it had started investigations to identify any perpetrators.
One of the main routes passes through Libya for migrants coming from other African countries and intending to reach the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea to cross it and try to reach Europe. For this reason it is also an area of intense activity by human traffickers, who organize and manage the long and risky journeys of migrants (and who have nothing to do with the so-called “smugglers”, who are very often migrants themselves). According to the IOM, at least 962 migrants died off the coast of Libya in 2023, and at least 1,563 were missing.
– Read also: Who are the so-called “smugglers”