Dozens of migrants are thought to have died after their inflatable rubber boat sunk off the coast of Libya, marking the latest tragedy on the world's deadliest migration route. Authorities have retrieved 11 bodies so far.
At least 73 migrants are missing and presumed dead after their inflatable rubber boat wrecked off the coast of Libya, the UN migration agency IOM said in a statement on Wednesday (February 15).
The boat, crammed with around 80 migrants, reportedly departed from the village of Qasr al-Akhyar, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli, and was headed to Europe before the boat wrecked on Tuesday, according to the IOM.
Authorities retrieved 11 bodies. The dead included one woman and 10 men, said IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli.
Qasr al-Akhyar officials shared footage online showing Libya's Red Crescent workers handling corpses washed ashore. The footage also showed the ruined inflatable rubber boat. It was not immediately clear what happened to the rubber boat.
The IOM said the seven migrant men who survived the shipwreck and made it to Libyan shores were in "extremely dire conditions" and were taken to a hospital.
Migrants pay smugglers thousands for deadly crossing
One of the survivors said in a different video shared by the municipality that scores of migrants were killed in the shipwreck. He said they paid between $3,000 to $5,000 (€2,800 and €4,700) each to smugglers to make the crossing across the central Mediterranean Sea, one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, according to the IOM.
War-torn Libya is an important launchpad for migrants – mostly from sub-Saharan Africa – seeking to reach Italian shores just 290 kilometers (180 miles) to the north.
The route recorded a death toll of at least 130 migrants this year, IOM said. In 2022, more than 1,450 migrants died.
"This situation is intolerable,'' said IOM's Msehli, urging governments to boost search and rescue efforts and to "establish clear and safe disembarkation mechanisms" as well as safe and regular pathways to migration.
On Tuesday, rescue vessel Ocean Viking saved 84 migrants on an "overcrowded" inflatable craft off Libya, charity SOS Mediterranee said, adding that 58 of them were unaccompanied minors.
With AFP and AP