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Migrants were brought back ashore last week by a Libyan Coast Guard ship.
Previously, 20 people had disembarked and drowned
Photo: - / dpa
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 57 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
Survivors said that there were at least 20 women and two children among the dead, an IOM spokeswoman wrote on Twitter on Monday.
She did not say how many people survived the accident.
The official IOM Twitter account in Libya said the tragedy underscored the need for state rescue capacities on "this dangerous route."
18 migrants were reportedly rescued and were brought ashore by fishermen and the coast guard.
The survivors, who come from Nigeria, Ghana and Gambia, reported that the boat stopped because of an engine failure and then capsized because of the bad weather.
Libya is an important transit country for migrants trying to get to Europe.
It was only on Wednesday last week that around 20 migrants drowned off the coast of the North African country while attempting a crossing to Europe.
Again and again, migrants die on the way across the Mediterranean - mostly because their unsuitable boats get into distress.
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, migrants in Libya are starved, tortured and exploited in internment camps.
The EU-backed Libyan coast guard intercepted around 15,000 people at sea between January and June this year and brought them back to the civil war in North Africa.
nek / dpa