LIBYA: Dozens of migrants are thought to have died after their boat sunk off the coast of Libya, the United Nations said Wednesday, the latest tragedy on the world’s deadliest migration route.
The boat carrying 80 people had departed from Qasr al-Akhyar, east of the capital Tripoli, and was heading to Europe when it ran into trouble on Tuesday, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. At least 73 of those aboard were “missing and presumed dead”, it said, adding that Libyan rescuers had retrieved 11 bodies.
“Seven survivors who made it back to Libyan shores in extremely dire conditions are currently in the hospital,” the agency added. Libya is a key launchpad for migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to reach Italian shores just 290 kilometres (180 miles) to the north -- but the route is the world’s deadliest migratory sea crossing.
The latest tragedy brings the number of deaths on the central Mediterranean route to 130 this year, the IOM said, calling the situation “intolerable”.
According to the agency’s Missing Migrants Project, more than 1,450 migrant deaths were recorded on the route in 2022, a fraction of the more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances since 2014.
On Tuesday, rescue boat the Ocean Viking saved 84 migrants on an “overcrowded” inflatable craft off Libya, charity SOS Mediterranee said, adding that 58 of them were unaccompanied minors.
- INDIA TODAY
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