Chandigarh : Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Sunday said that 17 Indian youths stranded in Lybia for the last six months have been released from jail in Tripoli.

In a statement, Sahney, who was making efforts for their rescue, said that most of them were from Punjab and Haryana and duped by some unscrupulous travel agents from Punjab and Delhi of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of sending them to Italy for lucrative jobs.

He said the amount varied from person to person. “All of them left India for Italy in February 2023 via Dubai and Egypt. After a few days, they landed in Libya and kept in Zuwara City, where they were being deprived of basic amenities like food and water and faced physical assault,” he said.

Sahney said when he got to know about these youths in May this year, he contacted the Indian embassy in Tunisia and initiated the legal process for their rescue. “My office was in constant touch with these boys and their families. Initially, our major concern was to take them out from the captivity of the local mafia,” he added.

The Rajya Sabha member said that he will be sponsoring all the legal expenses and flight tickets of these youths for the journey back home and then offer them free of cost skill training.