Libyan authorities free over 200 migrants from ‘secret prison’

BENGHAZI — Libya’s security authorities have freed more than 200 migrants from what they described as a secret prison in the town of Kufra in the southeast of the country after they were held captive in inhuman conditions, two security sources from the city told Reuters on Sunday.

The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the security authorities had found an underground prison, nearly three meters deep, which the sources said was run by a Libyan human trafficker.

One of the sources said this person had not yet been detained.

Members of Libya’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency raid in an unregistered migrant housing unit in Tripoli on July 26, 2025. AFP via Getty Images

“Some of the freed migrants were held captive up