Source:
The GuardianThe Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is allowing thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants on to overcrowded, unseaworthy ships in an apparently calculated attempt to use migration as a weapon to pressure Nato and the EU countries backing Libya's rebels.
Libyan officials admit they are not preventing boats full with African migrants embarking on perilous journeys to Europe. This is in protest at air strikes, which they say have destroyed the country's coastguard.
...
Fleming said one survivor had told the UN refugee agency that he and others had initially refused to board a ship they believed to be dangerously overcrowded. Libyan soldiers fired their guns into the air to force people to go on board, the survivor said.
Other survivors told the UN that some ships were leaving Tripoli only for their captain to disembark once they were at sea and take a pilot boat back to shore. "They (the migrants) are told, 'here's the compass, you go that way'," Fleming said.
Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/11/libya-accused-of-exploiting-humanitarian-crisis
As I suspected.