By Jabour Dokin
TRIPOLI
Around 3,000 illegal migrants crossed the Algerian border into Libya's northwestern oasis town of Ghadames within the past eight months, a town official has said.
"The number of illegal migrants is shockingly high, portending a real crisis," Beshir Shehab, security chief of the Ghadames local council, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
"The government must take steps to stop the flow of illegal migrants here," he added.
Ghadames, located on Libya's border with both Tunisia and Algeria, has become a transit point for migrants, said Shehab, who went on to note that most of them were African or Syrian.
He added that thousands of migrants had recently entered the town illegally, thus evading any physical or medical screening.
Detained migrants were subject to examination by local health officials, and the results, according to Shehab, "were horrifying."
Many of them, he asserted, were carrying contagious diseases, as they tended to stay in cheap housing – in often unhygienic conditions – with large numbers of other migrants.
Shehab said the Ghadames local council had contacted Libyan security agencies in hopes of finding a quick solution to the problem.
He added that Libya's border with Algeria was wide open, adding that some people exploited this state of affairs to make money by facilitating illegal migration.
Libya has witnessed rising lawlessness and infighting ever since a bloody uprising ended the decades-long rule of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Since then, the vast North African country has become a transit point for illegal migration.
Between March and August of last year, more than 30,000 illegal migrants entered Libya, according to U.N. data.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
