Libyan coastguard intercepts 500 illegal immigrants

MISRATA, Libya: Libya’s coastguard on Sunday intercepted five boats carrying around 500 illegal migrants who were trying to reach Europe, an official said.
Colonel Reda Issa told AFP that most of the migrants were Africans who had set off from an unspecified location.
The boats were intercepted some eight nautical miles off the coast and ordered to head for the city of Misrata east of the capital Tripoli, the officer said. Issa did not say what would happen to the migrants, but Libya has a detention centre for migrants in Misrata.
Sunday’s report came with the Italian coastguard on another migrant rescue operation in the Mediterranean after nearly 3,700 were saved on Saturday alone.
Several hundred migrants, mostly Africans but also including many fleeing the civil war in Syria, leave Libya every day on rickety boats hoping to make it to Europe.