U.N. PROBES MASS GRAVE AT LIBYA-TUNISIA BORDER

The UN human rights chief says his office is investigating reports of another mass grave in the desert along the Libya-Tunisia border. It follows the discovery in March of a site containing the bodies of 65 migrants in southwest Libya’s al-Jahriya valley. The circumstances of their deaths remain unknown, but it’s believed they died while being smuggled through the desert.

Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, said crimes were being committed against migrants and refugees ‘at scale, with impunity’ by State and non-State actors. They include torture, forced labour and mass expulsions. There are also reports of human traffickers taking migrants hostage and killing them if ransom demands are not met.

During a July 9th Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Libyan authorities were urged to co-operate with the UN’s latest probe into the atrocities.

Libya’s has become part of a deadly transit route for migrants trying to reach Europe via the southern Mediterranean.