More than 60 people were killed when a ship carrying migrants sank off the coast of Libya, the UN migration agency said.
Saturday’s sinking was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean. a dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, where authorities say thousands of people have already died.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated this the ship was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it, off the town of Zuwara, on the west coast of Libya, and 61 migrants drowned, citing survivors of the “dramatic sinking,” a statement said.
“The Central Mediterranean remains one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world,” the IOM wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
61 migrants, including women and children, drowned after a tragic shipwreck off the coast of Libya. According to survivors, the boat with about 86 people left the Libyan coast from Zwara. The Central Mediterranean remains one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world. pic.twitter.com/RsFSUzzFYK
– IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya) December 16, 2023
In recent years, Libya has become the main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East and trying to reach European shores via the central Mediterranean.
According to IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo, more than 2,250 people have died on this route this year.
This is “a dramatic figure that shows that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea,” Di Giacomo wrote in X.
In recent years, human traffickers have smuggled migrants across Libya’s long borders, shared with six countries. Migrants are packed into poorly equipped ships, including rubber boats, and embark on risky sea voyages.
Those intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers, where they are subjected to abuses including forced labor, beatings, rape and torture.which, according to the UN, constitute crimes against humanity.
The abuses often involve attempts to extort money from the families of detainees before the migrants are allowed to leave Libya on smuggling boats to Europe.
Source: DN
