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Meanwhile, some 97 migrants were arrested near Tripoli on Friday. People traffickers use Libya’s remote desert borders with Egypt Sudan, Niger and Chad to smuggle refugees into Libya, from where many try to reach Europe by boat.

In 2014, there were approximately 300,000 irregular crossings into the European Union, with United Nations data showing at least 218,000 people entering via the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean crossing claimed an estimated 3,300 lives last year, and earlier this month more than 300 people are believed to have died after leaving Libya in inflatable rafts