Mass Graves of Migrants Discovered in Libya

The International Organization for Migration has reported the discovery of mass graves in Libya, with some bodies showing gunshot wounds.

Some of the bodies of migrants found in two mass graves in Libya bore gunshot wounds, the International Organization for Migration said on Monday , adding that one of the sites is thought to contain up to 70 bodies.

Libya's security authorities have already recovered at least 28 bodies from the bigger of the two mass graves in the desert of southeast Libya, the attorney general's office said on Sunday 

An additional mass grave was discovered in the al-Kufra desert in the southeast, containing 30-70 bodies, according to reports from migrants released from the facility that was shared with authorities in Libya.

IOM could not give details of how long the bodies have been there for, but that they are thought to have been there for some time.

Last March the bodies of 65 migrants were found in a mass grave in the southwest of the country.

Libya has turned into a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean. At the end of January, Alwahat Criminal Investigation Department said it had freed 263 migrants of different Sub-Saharan nationalities, saying they were "being held by a smuggling gang in extremely poor human and health conditions."

22% of the 965 recorded deaths and disappearances of migrants in Libya happened on land routes, according to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.