Libya’s coast guard intercepts 90 Europe-bound migrants

CAIRO – Libya’s coast guard says it has intercepted 90 Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast.

Spokesman Ayoub Gassim says a rubber boat with 90 African migrants, including seven women, was stopped on Tuesday off Khoms town, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli.

Gassim says the migrants, who arrived at the shores Wednesday, will be taken to a Tripoli detention centre.

Libya has emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe. In recent years, the European Union has partnered with the coast guard and other Libyan forces to try to stop the dangerous sea crossings.

Rights groups, however, have criticized those efforts, saying they’ve left migrants at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centres rife with abuses.