Big toll as boats sink

MORE than 30 migrants died and 200 were rescued at the weekend after their boats foundered off Libya’s coast.

The coastguard conducted two rescue operations off the city of Garabulli, 60km east of Tripoli, spokesman Colonel Abu Ajila Abdelbarri said.

He added that patrols had found 31 bodies and 60 survivors from one boat, while all 140 passengers had survived in a second boat.

A Libyan navy spokesman said 18 women and three children were among the dead recovered from the sea, while 40 people were missing.