Seven African migrants died, apparently from suffocation, after being locked for days in a refrigerated truck abandoned by people smugglers on the Libyan coast, officials said.
Twenty-eight others, including five women, were rescued when the truck was discovered at Garabulli, east of Tripoli and a common departure point for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
“We got a call from a civilian who reported he could hear voices coming from a truck, which he believed contained Africans, based on their language,” said Adel Mostafa, an anti-illegal migration official in Tripoli.
The survivors said they had been left by smugglers, according to Hosni Abu Ayana, a second official at the Tripoli detention centre where they were brought. Migrants said the truck driver left the vehicle after unknown gunmen began firing at the tyres.
Libya is the main gateway for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea. The North African country slipped into turmoil after its 2011 uprising and migrant smugglers operate with impunity, packing people onto ill-equipped boats that often sink or break down.
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