CAIRO – A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe sank off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children, the U.N. migration agency said.
The shipwreck, which took place overnight from Thursday to Friday, was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key but dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Thousands have died, according to authorities.
The U.N. International Organization for Migration said in a statement Saturday night that the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, according to the survivors.
“The central Mediterranean remains one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world,” the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The European Union border agency said in a statement Sunday that its aircraft located the partially deflated rubber boat in Libya’s search and rescue zone on Thursday afternoon.
“People were in serious danger due to adverse weather conditions, with waves reaching heights of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet),” the agency known as Frontex said.
The central Mediterranean is known as one of the most dangerous migratory crossings. AP
Alarm Phone, a hotline for migrants in distress, said in a tweet that some migrants on board approached the group of volunteers, who in turn alerted authorities, including the Libyan coast guard, “who declared they would not look for them.” .
A spokesman for the Libyan coast guard was not immediately available for comment.
In recent years, Libya has become the main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, even though the North African nation has descended into chaos following an uprising backed by NATO that overthrew and killed autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. .
More than 2,250 people died on the Central European route this year, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, IOM spokesman.
It is “a dramatic figure that shows that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea,” Di Giacomo wrote in X.
According to the IOM’s missing migrants project, at least 940 migrants were reported dead and 1,248 missing off Libya between January 1 and November 18.
The project, which tracks migratory movements, said some 14,900 migrants, including more than 1,000 women and more than 530 children, were intercepted and returned to Libya this year.
In 2022, the project reported 529 dead and 848 missing off Libya. More than 24,600 were intercepted and returned to Libya.
In recent years, human traffickers have profited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling migrants across the country’s extensive borders, which it shares with six nations. Migrants are crammed into poorly equipped boats, including inflatable boats, and undertake dangerous sea journeys.
Those who are intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers plagued by abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rape and torture, practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to UN-commissioned investigators.
The abuse often accompanies attempts to extort the families of imprisoned migrants before allowing them to leave Libya on smugglers’ boats for Europe.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn