Four killed after two boats carrying migrants capsize off Libya’s coast
At least four people were killed when two boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off the Libyan coast, according to the Libyan Red Crescent.
In a statement released on Saturday, the organization said the incident occurred Thursday evening off the coast of the coastal town of al-Khums.
The first boat was carrying 26 people from Bangladesh, four of whom died.
The second boat carried 69 people, including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, the Red Crescent added, without specifying their fate. Eight of them were children, the statement said.
Al-Khums is a coastal town located approximately 118 kilometers east of the capital, Tripoli.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants and asylum seekers fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 in a NATO-backed uprising.
Images released by the Libyan Red Crescent show a row of bodies in black plastic bags spread out on the ground, while volunteers provide first aid to survivors.
Other photos show the rescued people, wrapped in thermal blankets, sitting on the ground.
The statement added that the Coast Guard and the Al-Khums Port Security Agency participated in the rescue operation. Adding that the bodies were handed over to the competent authorities on the instructions of the city prosecutor’s office.
On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 42 migrants were missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat sank near the Al Buri oil field, an offshore installation off the north-northwest of Libya’s coast.
In mid-October, a group of 61 migrant bodies were found on the coast west of Tripoli. In September, the IOM said at least 50 people died after a ship carrying 75 Sudanese refugees caught fire off the coast of Libya.
Several states, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway and Sierra Leone, urged Libya last week at a United Nations meeting in Geneva to close detention centers where rights groups say migrants and refugees have been tortured, abused and sometimes killed.
