Bodies of 74 Europe-bound migrants wash up on Libya coast

rubber boat, the kind that usually carries 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 U.N. migration agency said on Twitter.

The Red Crescent posted photo- graphs of dozens of bodies in white and black bags, lined up along the shore. Al-Misrati said the bodies would be taken to a cemetery for unidentified people in the capital, Tripoli. The Red Crescent appealed for help on Facebook, saying there are no vehicles to transport the bodies.

Libyan coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim said more than 500 migrants were rescued at sea on Friday and Saturday off the coast of Sebratha, a city to the west of Zawiya.

Gassim said the smugglers pack larger rubber boats with up to 180 people, dramatically increasing the risk of capsizing.

“We are seeing the new boats, which are not equipped with anything, but they carry more people,” he said. “This is going to be even more disastrous for the migrants.”

The Libya-to-Italy smuggling route saw record numbers of migrant drownings in 2016, Fabrice Leggeri, director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, said last week. Some 4,579 migrant deaths were documented in 2016, up from 2,869 deaths the previous year and 3,161 in 2014. The real number is believed to be higher.