National Post (National Edition)
74 BODIES WASH UP ON LIBYA’S SHORE
Ominous sign of things to come, officials say
The bodies, packed in white bags, were lined up neatly in row after row along the Libyan shore.
The dead 74 migrants were the latest tragedy at sea along a perilous but increasingly popular trafficking route to Europe — and an ominous sign of what is to come.
Officials says the deadly smuggling season from Libya to Europe has begun earlier with the migrants being forced to risk the choppy, wintry waters in bigger boats that are notoriously unseaworthy.
“We are seeing the new boats, which are not equipped with anything, but they carry more people,” said Libyan coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim. “This is going to be even more disastrous for the migrants.”
A torn rubber boat was found Monday near the bodies of the dead African migrants. More bodies were seen floating out at sea.
Gassim said the smugglers pack the larger rubber boats with up to 180 people, dramatically increasing the risk of capsizing.
The boat carrying the latest migrants left Libya for Italy on Saturday and appears to have been left drifting without an engine for several days, said Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration in Rome.
“It’s really strange that smugglers would take off the engine,” he said. “They are becoming increasingly cruel.”
Gassim said over 500 migrants were rescued at sea on Friday and Saturday off the coast of Sebratha, a city to the west of Zawiya where the bodies were found.
There has been little sign of the smuggling surge abating, even during wintertime. There were 228 recorded deaths in January, by far the biggest monthly toll in recent years.
Last year saw a record number of drownings — more than 4,500 — involving migrants travelling on smuggling routes from Libya to Italy, according to a report by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency known as Frontex. The figure is likely higher because many deaths go unrecorded, the agency’s director, Fabrice Leggeri, said last week. In comparison, 2015 had 2,869 drownings while in 2014 there were 3,061.
The agency expects the numbers to rise this year. Leggeri said that more and more smugglers are using poorly built smaller boats, and packing them up with migrants to increase revenue. On average, the boats this year are carrying 160 migrants per vessel, while in previous years that average had been around 100.
Smugglers and migrants have taken advantage of the lawlessness and turmoil in Libya, beset by civil war since its longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was ousted and killed during the 2011 revolution, part of the Arab Spring revolts that swept the region. Most migrants are escaping poverty, unemployment and climate change in sub-Saharan African and hoping to find a better life in Europe.
The European Union has plans to halt the tide by training the Libyan coast guard and stepping up cooperation with neighbouring Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. But rights groups fear that such measures could leave tens of thousands of migrants stranded in the restive country.
The plan would also require a much stronger Libyan government capable of controlling the country’s waters. At present, Libya is split between two competing governments which convene in different parts of the country.
The head of Doctors Without Borders, Arjan Hehenkamp, says the EU plan shows that it is “delusional about just how dangerous the situation in Libya really is.”