More than 90 migrants have been forced by Libyan authorities to disembark from a cargo ship that rescued them off the country’s coast.
14 migrants had disembarked willingly but, in the first documented case of its kind, the other 92 refused to leave.
“A joint force raided the cargo ship and used rubber bullets and tear gas to force (them off the ship),” the commander of the central region coastguards, Tawfiq Esskair, told reporters.
The migrants had refused to leave the ship after ten days of being rescued by the Panama-flagged ship as their boat began sinking, and brought them to Misrata.
Esskair noted that the operation was carried out after the directive of Libya’s attorney general.
Libya’s western coast has been a main departure point for migrants fleeing wars and poverty and hoping for new lives in Europe.
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