Rescued migrants taken to Libyan detention centre that was bombed

More than 50 people died earlier this month after the attack on Tajoura

As many as 84 migrants rescued from a deadly shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea have been taken to a Libyan detention centre where more than 50 people died earlier this month following an airstrike, the UN said.

Some 115 people are feared to have drowned following the capsizing off the Libyan coast and the survivors, believed to be 134, have been distributed to centres.

There were about 250 people on board, mainly from Eritrea and other sub-Saharan Africa and Arab countries, when the ship ran into trouble off the coast near Khoms, east of the capital Tripoli, Libyan navy spokesman Ayoub Qassem said.

A UN spokesman said 84 of them were taken to a detention facility in Tajoura, in the eastern suburbs of Tripoli, which is the headquarters of military brigade engaged in Libya’s civil war.

At least 53 people were killed and some 130 wounded when two airstrikes hit the facility in Tajoura July 2. The first hit a munitions depot and the second where the migrants were being held.

“This has to stop. They must be released and action taken so no one is brought back to detention centres,” said Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for the UN’s refugee agency.

After the July attack UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “outraged” and called for an independent investigation.

But only two days ago, Mr Yaxley said another 38 people had by taken to Tajoura after being intercepted by the coastguard.

Aid agencies say migrants at detention facilities face a raft of human rights abuses including torture and are likely to be held in squalid conditions.