More than 20 migrants are presumed dead after their boat sank off Libya on Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported. Only one body could be recovered. Forty-two people were also rescued, they were brought back to Libya by the coast guard.
One migrant lost his life and 23 others are presumed dead after their boat sank off the coast of Libya on Monday (May 10), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported.
Only one body could be recovered after the tragedy, said Tarik Argaz, spokesperson for UNHCR in Libya. Forty-two survivors were also brought back to land and to the capital Tripoli by the Libyan coast guard.
The UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) were hard at work on Monday to treat these survivors who were suffering from burns.
“Bodies of migrants brought back by the waves to the coasts”
The day before, five people, including a woman and a child, had already drowned off Libya as they tried to reach Europe. At least 45 people were on board.
Safa Msehli, the spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said fishermen had rescued 40 migrants involved in the shipwreck, which they brought ashore.
“Bodies of migrants from two shipwrecks off Libya have been brought back by waves to the coast since yesterday,” Safa Meshli also tweeted Monday morning, without specifying the exact number of bodies, suggesting that it was concerned migrants who disappeared at sea on Sunday and Monday.
On Sunday, more than 700 migrants, divided into nine different boats, had also been intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libya. They were taken to overcrowded detention centers, said Safa Msehli.
Since the start of the year, around 7,500 migrants have been intercepted at sea by the Libyan coast guard and returned to the country, according to IOM data. A figure in clear increase compared to the same periods of 2020 and 2019.
