Punjabi youths among 17 freed from Libya jails

New Delhi, July 30

As many as 17 youths – most of them from Punjab and Haryana – were released from jails in Tripoli of war-torn Libya. They had landed behind the bars for being ‘illegal immigrants’ after they were ditched by illegal travel agents. They had taken a ‘donkey route’ to reach Italy in February but they got stuck in Libya.

Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Vikramjit Singh Sahney, who has been putting in efforts for their rescue for several months now, on Sunday, said some unscrupulous travel agents from Punjab and Delhi had duped these youngsters on the pretext of sending them to Italy for lucrative job offers.

“All of them left India for Italy in February via Dubai then Egypt, and after a few days, they had landed in Libya and kept in Zuwara City – where they were being deprived of food and water,” claimed Sahney.

Sahney said when he got to know about it in May this year, he got in touch with the Indian Embassy in Tunisia and initiated the legal process for rescuing of these youngsters.

“My office was in constant touch with these boys and their families. Initially, our major concern was to take them out from the captivity of local mafia,” said Sahney.

He stated that yesterday the Libyan authorities released these youths from jail and kept them in a camp office.

Sahney said he would sponsor all legal expenses and flight tickets of these youth coming back to their home and after that he would also offer them free of cost skilling in his skill centres and provide them job opportunities here so that they don’t have to go abroad in search of jobs and get trapped like this.