‘Abducting Countrymen’: 4 Bangladeshis held in Libya

Libyan police yesterday arrested four Bangladeshis in Tajoura district, adjacent to the capital Tripoli, for allegedly abducting five Bangladeshi migrants and demanding a ransom of US $32,500 for their release.

Ashraful Islam, labour counsellor of Bangladesh embassy in Libya, confirmed it to The Daily Star over phone from Tripoli.

“We have contacted Libyan police and will soon meet the victims and help them either return home or take them to the places of their work,” he said.

Legal actions will be taken against the “abductors”, he added.

Such incidents of abduction are almost frequent in Libya, amid lawlessness in a country at civil war, Ashraful said.

There are estimated 20,000 Bangladeshi migrants in Libya. Many of them try to cross the Mediterranean by boat to reach Europe. In a boat capsize off Tunisian coast on May 9, more than 40 were feared dead.