BODIES OF DOZENS OF MIGRANTS WASH ASHORE: HUMANITARIAN AGENCY
CAIRO At least 74 bodies of African migrants have washed ashore in western Libya, the Libyan Red Crescent said Tuesday, the latest tragedy at sea along a perilous but increasingly popular trafficking route to Europe.
The bodies were found near the western Libyan city of Zawiya on Monday, Red Crescent spokesman Mohammed al-Misrati told The Associated Press, adding that he feared more might surface. He said a torn rubber boat, the kind that usually carry up to 120 people, was found nearby.
The Red Crescent’s branch in Zawiya said there are bodies still floating out at sea but it has no means to retrieve them. The International Organization of Migration said the traffickers took the engine and left the boat to drift. Another 12 migrants remain missing and are “presumed drowned,” and a sole survivor was transferred to a hospital in a coma, the UN migration agency said on Twitter.
Libyan coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim said more than 500 migrants were rescued at sea on Friday and Saturday off the coast of Sabratha, a city to the west of Zawiya. The migrants’ boats were about 10 kilometres from the coast.
The Libya to Italy smuggling route across the Mediterranean has seen record numbers of migrant drownings in 2016. Fabrice Leggeri, director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, said last week that 4,579 migrant deaths were documented in 2016, up from 2,869 deaths the previous year and 3,161 in 2014.