CAIRO, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The 23 Egyptian workers who were reportedly detained and abused by a militia in Libya arrived in Egypt on Thursday early morning hours after their release.
Egyptian local TV channels showed footage of their arrival at Egypt's Salloum crossing on the Egyptian-Libyan borders and their reception by the governor of Matrouh province.
It was reported that the Egyptian laborers were captured by a militia in the Libyan western city of Tarhuna.
A video has recently been circulating online showing the Egyptian men forced to stand on one leg and ordered to repeat words against Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Libya's eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The Egyptian media said that the Egyptian authorities managed to release the workers and return them home safely at Sisi's instructions.
On Wednesday, Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) announced locating and arresting those accused of detaining and abusing the Egyptian workers.
"The historical relations between the Libyan and Egyptian peoples cannot be undermined by individual behaviors that do not represent the state of Libya," said the GNA interior ministry in a statement.
Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The situation escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments with warring forces: the GNA based in the capital Tripoli and another in the northeastern city of Tobruk allied with Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).
Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia support Haftar's LNA, while the GNA is mainly backed by Turkey and Qatar. Enditem
