Libya’s crackdown on migrants that began Friday led to at least 5,000 people, among them hundreds of women and children, being rounded up, according to a United Nations tally obtained by the Associated Press.
At least 15 were injured and one migrant was fatally shot during the raid in Gargaresh, the U.N. reported. The western town is a center for migrants in Libya as well as in surrounding areas. The tally from the U.N. showed 215 children and more than 540 women, 30 of them pregnant, were rounded up in the crackdown.
Authorities in Libya called the event a security operation against illegal migration and drug trafficking. The country has become a major transit hub for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East trying to reach Europe.
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