HUNDREDS of refugees attempting to flee Libya in boats across the Mediterranean were intercepted and returned to a detention centre in the war-torn country by the EU-supported Libyan coastguard at the weekend.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported yesterday that at least five boats carrying close to 400 people set out from Libya on Saturday. The Libyan coastguard seized one of the boats that evening, while the other four were returned to the main port in the country’s besieged capital city of Tripoli late on Sunday.

IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli told the Star today that all the 317 people detained at the weekend had been locked away in the al-Nasser detention centre in Zawya, north-west Libya.