Bodies of drowned migrants wash up on Libyan coast

  • By:karen-millen

16

03/2022

Libya is a major transit point for migrants, many of them from African countries, seeking better opportunities in Europe.

Mohamed Abushaala, head of the Red Crescent in Khums, a port in western Libya, said 15 bodies, including that of a baby, were recovered from the shoreline in nearby Alous on Saturday. He said three survivors had said there were 35 people in total in his boat, which had capsized.

He said a separate figure posted on social media of 17 bodies, along with 10 others found on a different beach, was incorrect.

"They were in the sea for about a day," said Osama al-Saket, head of the Khums hospital that received the bodies following calls from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and law enforcement authorities.

"The bodies were still intact... there were 14 of them, along with a small baby," al-Saket added. The Interior Ministry later said 14 bodies had been recovered from a group of 60 people believed to be missing at sea. .

Los cadáveres de migrantes ahogados llegan a la costa libia

It was not clear from the statements if they all referred to the same group, and Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

A larger number of people have attempted to cross the Mediterranean this year after several years of falling numbers since 2015. Some 1,500 have drowned in 2021, the United Nations migration agency IOM said last week.

The agency's Missing Migrants Project has designated the Central Mediterranean route as the world's deadliest known migration route, with more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances recorded since 2014.

Photos released by the Khums Red Crescent Society showed a line of bodies lying along a beach as workers bagged them.

Bodies of drowned migrants wash up on Libyan coast
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