At least 50 migrants are feared to be lost at sea after the wooden boat on which they were traveling capsized off the eastern coast of Libya. That's according to Libyan security sources. Ten migrants are reported to have survived the ordeal.
Survivors from the migrant boat capsizing were rescued near El-Bardaa island, around 70 kilometers west of Tobruk, and not far from the border with Egypt, reported the news agency Reuters.
Security forces in Libya told the news agency that based on survivors’ accounts, they believed the wooden boat had been carrying around 60 migrants and had set sail for Europe earlier that morning (Tuesday, July 14). They said the migrants on board were from "different sub-Saharan African countries," though they didn’t specify which ones.
On Monday (July 13), rescue teams based in Tobruk recovered four bodies from the waters and rescued 24 migrants. According to anonymous security forces, their boat "had been adrift in Libyan waters for two weeks."
"The boat was carrying 28 migrants who faced extremely harsh humanitarian conditions aboard a dilapidated boat where four died because of that," one of the sources told Reuters.
Survivors from that boat were reportedly taken to a local hospital for medical treatment.
Read AlsoGreek coast guard, Frontex pick up around 400 migrants from small boats in two days
Eastern Libya: Entry and departure point for migrants
At least 26 bodies, believed to have been migrants, were recovered from the Tobruk area by rescue services in June, after their boat also capsized.
Tobruk is located in eastern Libya and comes under the control of the military forces that hold sway there. Authorities in eastern Libya have their own parliament and leaders. The city acts as the general headquarters for Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army LNA.
The eastern part of Libya has increasingly become the main entry point for migrants who arrive in Libya looking for both work and onward travel towards Europe. Numerous studies and accounts from migrants themselves suggest that many of these migrants actually arrive in eastern Libya via visas and permits issued by the eastern authorities.
Often, once they arrive, the migrants can become enmeshed in complicated systems of smuggling gangs and militias, and often find themselves bought, sold and transported between the two parts of Libya, often detained for periods and extorted or exploited for more money, before potentially being allowed to continue on towards Europe.
Some set off towards Italy from both the eastern and western parts of Libya and others try their luck on the newer route towards Crete and Greece's southern islands.
Read AlsoMediterranean: At least 10 migrants dead near Malta
Deaths and dangers
According to the UN Migration Agency IOM's Missing Migrants Project, between the beginning of the year and July 9, when the data was last updated, at least 868 migrants are missing, believed dead on the Central Mediterranean route alone. Since 2014, deaths across the Mediterranean have numbered more than 34,000.
The majority of those deaths have occurred after migrants set off from Libya and Tunisia towards Europe. At least 14 of those deaths are believed to have been children. One Italian migrant news portal Mente in Fuga reported that women and children were among those lost at sea in the latest capsizing, adding that their deaths “barely merit a headline,” since they have now become so common.
Although fewer migrants are arriving in Europe each year, deaths are becoming proportionally more frequent, the IOM warns, making the routes to Europe more and more lethal for those who travel them.
With Reuters
Read AlsoIn eastern Libya, 'the financial profits generated by migrant trafficking are very significant'