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Tripoli - A Libyan government minister has voiced concern about the whereabouts of 105 orphans from the rebel-held city of Misrata, saying there were reports they may have been taken abroad.
Social Affairs Minister Ibrahim Sharif told reporters in Tripoli late on Tuesday that the government had opened an investigation into what had happened to the 52 boys and 53 girls, who were listed as resident at a state-run orphanage in Misrata, Libya's third-largest city.
"Some witnesses have reported seeing them on board a Turkish boat, others say it was an Italian boat, others still a French boat," the minister said.
"We want the truth and we hold those countries responsible for the well-being of these children who are neither soldiers nor combatants."
Sharif added that a rebel doctor captured by government troops had told his captors that the orphans had been taken to France and Italy.
One of two rebel-held enclaves in western Libya, Misrata is surrounded by government forces and is entirely dependent on supply by sea.
A number of European vessels have docked in the port to deliver relief supplies and bring out civilians injured in the fighting and other hardship cases.
France was at the centre of a scandal in 2007 when aid workers from the Zoe's Ark charity attempted to fly 103 children out of Chad who they said were orphans from the war-torn Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan.
International aid staff later found that almost all the children were Chadian and had at least one living parent.
Social Affairs Minister Ibrahim Sharif told reporters in Tripoli late on Tuesday that the government had opened an investigation into what had happened to the 52 boys and 53 girls, who were listed as resident at a state-run orphanage in Misrata, Libya's third-largest city.
"Some witnesses have reported seeing them on board a Turkish boat, others say it was an Italian boat, others still a French boat," the minister said.
"We want the truth and we hold those countries responsible for the well-being of these children who are neither soldiers nor combatants."
Sharif added that a rebel doctor captured by government troops had told his captors that the orphans had been taken to France and Italy.
One of two rebel-held enclaves in western Libya, Misrata is surrounded by government forces and is entirely dependent on supply by sea.
A number of European vessels have docked in the port to deliver relief supplies and bring out civilians injured in the fighting and other hardship cases.
France was at the centre of a scandal in 2007 when aid workers from the Zoe's Ark charity attempted to fly 103 children out of Chad who they said were orphans from the war-torn Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan.
International aid staff later found that almost all the children were Chadian and had at least one living parent.
