Cairo: A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children, the UN migration agency said. Saturday’s shipwreck was the latest tragedy in this part of Mediterranean Sea, a key but dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said 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 survivors.
“The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” the agency wrote on X.
Alarm Phone - a hotline for migrants in distress - said some migrants onboard reached out to the volunteer group who in turn alerted authorities including the “Libyan coastguard who stated that they would not search for them.” A spokesman for the Libyan coast guard was not available for comment.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and West Asia, even though the North African nation has plunged into chaos following a Nato-backed uprising that killed longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.More than 2,250 people died on the central European route this year, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesperson. 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.