REUTERS, Tripoli

Authorities in eastern Libya have recovered the bodies of three migrants -- including two Bangladeshis -- from the Mediterranean coast near Bishr in northeastern Libya.

They also said 120 migrants held captive by human traffickers south of Benghazi were rescued and deported.

A statement from the security directorate in the city of Ajdabiya said an Egyptian migrant, who had escaped and was found lost and exhausted in the coastal town of Bishr, led security forces to the locations where the other migrants were being held.

The Egyptian had been held with compatriots and migrants of other nationalities “inside a den used to torture migrants and blackmail their families”, according to the statement released late Monday.

Since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a Nato-backed uprising in 2011, Libya has become a key transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty for Europe via dangerous desert and Mediterranean crossings.

Libya’s oil-dependent economy also attracts impoverished migrants seeking work, but poor security across the sprawling country leaves them vulnerable to abuse.