PARIS, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- France has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council over migrants' treatment and smuggling in Libya, the country's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday.
"France has decided this morning to ask for the UN Security Council's express meeting to address this issue. It does so as a permanent member of the Security Council," Le Drian said during a government's question session at the National Assembly.
"Libyan authorities, who have been alerted several times, including by myself because I was there in September, have decided to open an investigation into the facts," he told lawmakers.
"We want it to go fast, and if the Libyan justice system can not carry this procedure through, then we should open international sanctions," the minister added.
Le Drian also called on the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency to publish details about migrants trafficking in the North African country.
Some recent media reports have suggested that stranded African migrants in Libya are sold as slaves.
Libya is a preferred point of departure for migrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, who wish to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe due to the insecurity and chaos in the North African country following the 2011 uprising.
