UN says 73 migrants presumed lifeless in shipwreck off Libya

It mentioned the boat, carrying round 80 migrants, reportedly departed from the village of Qasr al-Khayar, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli. The migrants had been heading to European shores, it mentioned.

Seven migrants survived the mishap and made it to Libyan shores, the U.N. mentioned, in “extraordinarily dire situations.” They had been taken to a hospital.

Tuesday’s shipwreck was the newest tragedy within the central Mediterranean Sea, a key route for migrants. The demise toll on that route has reached at the very least 130 migrants this yr, IOM mentioned.

In 2022, greater than 1,450 migrants died, in line with the IOM’s lacking migrants venture.

“This case is insupportable,” mentioned Safa Msehli, the group’s spokesperson. She known as on governments to extend search and rescue efforts and to “set up clear and secure disembarkation mechanisms in addition to secure and common pathways to migration.

Off Libya’s shores alone, at the very least 529 migrants had been reported lifeless and 848 others lacking final yr, whereas over 24,680 had been intercepted and returned to the nation, in line with the IOM.

Libya has lately emerged because the dominant transit level for migrants from Africa and the Center East attempting to make it to Europe. The oil-rich nation plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed rebellion that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Human traffickers lately have benefited from the chaos in war-torn Libya, smuggling in migrants throughout the desert nation’s prolonged borders with six nations. The migrants are then sometimes packed into ill-equipped rubber boats and set off on dangerous sea voyages.

European international locations have lately pushed Libyan authorities and the coast guard to detain and intercept migrants trying to cross to European shores.

A lot of those that have been intercepted and returned to Libya — together with girls and kids — are held in government-run detention facilities the place they endure from abuse, together with torture, rape and extortion, in line with rights teams.