Sea yields dozens of migrants’ bodies

CAIRO — Libya’s coast guard recovered dozens of bodies of Europe-bound migrants who perished at sea as search operations continued Friday, a day after up to 150 people, including women and children, disappeared and were feared drowned after their boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.

A top U.N. official described Thursday’s shipwrecks as “the worst Mediterranean tragedy” so far this year.

The Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency in the Libyan capital said that up to 350 people were on board the boats that capsized near the town of Khoms, about 75 miles east of Tripoli.

The migrants included Eritreans, Egyptians, Sudanese and Libyans, the agency said. Libyan officials said more than 130 migrants have been rescued since Thursday.

At least a dozen were taken to a hospital in Khoms while the rest were transferred to detention centers, including Tajoura, near the front lines of the fighting between rival Libyan factions, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The Tajoura detention center was hit by an airstrike on July 3 that killed more than 50 people and raised new concerns over the treatment of migrants in Libya.

The U.N. refugee agency has demanded that the Tajoura center be closed.

However, the U.N. migration agency said later Friday that once they arrived, the 84 migrants were turned back from the center and were instead being “released gradually” into the town of Tajoura.