Four suspected human traffickers have been arrested for their ties to a migrant smuggling network that held and tortured 164 migrants, Libya's attorney general said Tuesday.Â
The four are accused of torturing 164 migrants from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea and causing the deaths of 10 migrants. They were arrested in a raid on the base where the smuggling network was holding the migrants in the northeastern oasis of Zillah, 750 km from the capital Tripoli.
Investigators revealed that 71 of the detained migrants were forced to pay $10,000 each in exchange for their release.
The Attorney General's Office released footage filmed by the suspects showing them brutally torturing and physically assaulting the migrants. They reportedly filmed these videos to blackmail the migrants' families into paying the ransom.
The operation resulted in the release of the victims, while the search for the remaining members of the smuggling network continues.Â
This is the latest operation in the Libyan government's ongoing crackdown on migrant smuggling operations across the country. Last month, police dismantled another migrant trafficking network in Zillah that beat and tortured its victims, and is also suspected of killing some of them and dumping their bodies in mass graves in the desert.
It was not clear from the attorney general's statement whether the two networks were related or whether the new arrests were connected to the earlier mass grave busts.Â
The crackdown on migrant smuggling follows the discovery of two mass graves in separate locations in February, with some of the bodies bearing bullet wounds, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
As of February 19, the total number of bodies recovered from the two mass graves had reached 93, the U.N. confirmed.
"The alarming and tragic discovery of mass graves following raids on human trafficking sites underscores the grave danger faced by migrants in Libya," said Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.N.'s head of political and peacebuilding affairs.
Meanwhile, 956 Nigerians have been evacuated from Libya in the first three months of 2025 in joint rescue missions conducted by IOM and the Nigerian National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI), according to a statement issued by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission on Monday. The rescued migrants were brought back to Nigeria in six rescue missions between January and March 2025, the last of which was on March 18.
"Because of the delicate political situation in Libya, we countlessly caution Nigerians to avoid Libya as a pathway to Europe; not just Libya but other irregular routes,” chairman of the commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said.
Similarly, Somalia announced on Monday the return of 145 Somali citizens from Libya, “after they faced various challenges and voluntarily opted for repatriation,” the Somali foreign affairs ministry said.
Earlier this year, a report accused both Libyan state and non-state actors of buying migrants from Tunisia and later demanding ransoms for their release. The reported ransom amounts ranged from 1,000 euros ($1,041) for immediate release to between 400 and 700 euros ($416–$729).
The report detailed the systematic abuses suffered by migrants throughout the process, from their arbitrary capture in Tunisia and alleged mistreatment by Tunisian forces to their detention in Libyan prisons.
