Children among eight migrants who suffocated in Libya truck

Eight migrants, mostly children, have suffocated to death trapped in a refrigerator truck carrying around 100 people in western Libya, security forces say.

Some of the 90 who have survived had to be admitted to hospital for respiratory problems, according to the regional security forces in the western city of Zuwara.

Six children, a woman and a young man died of suffocation, they say.

It is not immediately clear how long the migrants — from Bangladesh and Pakistan as well as Arab and African countries — were left by smugglers locked up in the vehicle just east of Zuwara.

The hospital in Zuwara, a coastal town located 62 miles west of Tripoli and near the Tunisian border, was placed in a state of emergency to deal with the large number of migrants admitted, it says.

Rocked by lawlessness since the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gadhafi, Libya has become a key transit country for illegal migration across the Mediterranean Sea.

The migrants, who are exploited by smugglers, often try to make the treacherous crossing on unseaworthy boats, hoping to reach Italy and make their way further inland in Europe and start a new life.

Smugglers often use trucks to move migrants before they put them on boats for Europe.

— AFP