By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 29 November 2013:
The Libyan navy yesterday picked up almost 300 asylum seekers in two separate incidents just off . . .[restrict]the coast.
In the first interception, to the north-west of Garabulli, on Thursday morning, a naval vessel spotted and intercepted a broken-down rubber raft carrying 109 passengers. Navy spokesman Ayoud Ghasem told the Libya Herald that the majority of people on board the inflatable was from West Africa.
The second find, in the same area, was made in the small hours of this morning when a patrol craft came across a similar type of inflatable. This time there were 170 people crowded aboard, again mostly of West African origin.
Ghasem said that each vessel was brought ashore in Tripoli and the asylum seekers handed over to the Tripoli Illegal Immigration Department. He added that he was not in a position to give an information on the medical condition of the detained, [/restrict]
