Tripoli, May 23 (IANS): Militias allied with the rebel government based in Tripoli on Friday released 42 Tunisian nationals who were arrested several days ago in western Libya for being suspected jihadis.

More Tunisians are being held in the detention centre for illegal immigrants over lack of documentation or for illegally entering the country, according to the Libyan agency for protection against illegal immigration, which added that they will be repatriated once they are identified, Efe news agency reported.

Arresting Tunisian citizens has become a matter of controversy since Libya Dawn militia, the armed wing of the Tripoli government, announced last week that it was holding a group of them.

One common take on the issue is that Tunisian workers have been captured and detained as a punitive response to the Tunisian authorities' decision to arrest Dawn Libya's leader, Salah Badi.

However, Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche dismissed any political motive behind the crisis, and assured that the detention of the workers had nothing to do with Badi's arrest.

Tunisia, which shares its eastern border with Libya, is one of the most affected countries in the region by the civil war and chaos that Libya has endured since 2011, with the ouster of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Thousands of Libyans currently live in Tunisia as they relocated to flee war and instability, while hundreds cross the border in both directions on a daily basis to visit their families and maintain their businesses.