On 3 April, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said that four suspected people smugglers accused of moving migrants across the Mediterranean into Europe have been arrested in Libya as a result of joint working between the NCA and Libyan police. The group were detained in locations across the country. All four men now face prosecution by the Libyan Attorney General’s Office. The most significant arrest, on 12 March, saw NCA officers supporting Libyan colleagues to secure the detention in Tripoli of a man implicated in the transportation of hundreds of Syrian migrants across the central Mediterranean using fragile fibreglass boats. It followed the arrest on 10 March of a second suspected people smuggler, detained in Tubruq. He was identified by the NCA as being implicated in the smuggling of migrants of various nationalities into Greece.
