Four migrants drown, three missing off LibyaTripoli, May 24, 2022 – Four migrants were found dead and three were missing after their boat capsized off the Libyan coast, the North African country’s coast guard said Tuesday. The agency also rescued 13 migrants who had been shipwrecked as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, it said in a statement. “The rescued migrants were taken to the Mellitah landing point and handed to the competent authorities,” it said, adding steps would be taken to send them “back to their countries”. Twelve of the rescued migrants were Syrian, along with one Egyptian, a navy official told AFP. The nationalities of those who died, three men and a woman, were unknown. Libya’s descent into lawless chaos after the 2011 revolt that toppled the regime of Moamer Kadhafi turned the country into a major conduit for refugees from across the Arab world, Africa and even South Asia seeking to reach Europe. Many who board unseaworthy boats headed for Italy, 300 kilometres (185 miles) away, die in the process, making it the deadliest migration route in the world. Several thousand are also trapped in Libya, often facing severe human rights violations. Since the start of the year, 6,340 migrants have been intercepted and returned to Libya, according to figures published by the United Nations’ migration agency on Monday. Meanwhile at least 129 people have died attempting the crossing and 459 have gone missing, it said. |
More than 70 people are missing in the Mediterranean after a boat crowded with migrants headed for Europe from Libya sank off neighbouring Tunisia, the coastguard said Wednesday. The boat, which was carrying around 100 people when it put to sea, capsized off the Tunisian port of Sfax, with coastguard and navy units able to pull 24 people out of the water, National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli said.
“According to preliminary results of the investigation, an inflatable boat left the coast of Zawara in Libya on Sunday night with around 100 people on board,” he said, adding that so far one body had been recovered. They were “of various African and Asian nationalities”, he added.
Libya has become a major launchpad for migrants seeking to reach Europe on what has become the world’s deadliest migration route. Many end up in Italy, some 300 kilometres (180 miles) away, but many others die at sea when their often unseaworthy boats capsize or break down. Improving weather in recent weeks has prompted a spike in departures. Since the start of the year, 6,340 migrants have been intercepted and returned to Libya, according to figures published by International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday. Human rights groups say those returned often face horrific abuses.
At least 129 people have died attempting the crossing and 459 have gone missing, the IOM said. Tunisia’s Sfax region is itself a busy departure point for attempts to reach Europe, some of them by its own citizens. In early May, authorities said they had found the bodies of 24 migrants who had drowned in such attempts. Last year, 15,671 migrants attempted to reach Italy from Tunisia, up from fewer than 13,000 in 2020, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES). Nearly 2,000 migrants went missing or drowned in the Mediterranean in 2021, compared to 1,401 the previous year, according to the IOM.
