Five migrants seeking to reach Europe illegally have died and sixteen are missing after the sinking of their boat off the coast of Libya, we learned on Tuesday August 30 from local authorities.
A boat with 27 migrants on board, all Egyptians, capsized off Tolmeta (east), an official with the local rescue unit told AFP, without specifying when the boat capsized.
Five bodies were recovered, six people were rescued while the other 16 are missing and presumed dead, according to this source.
“
The boat was 35 kilometers from the coast, in a rocky and difficult to access area, which complicated the arrival of help
,” said this interlocutor.
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The chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011 made Libya a preferred route for tens of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, Arab countries and South Asia seeking to reach the Europe by the Italian coasts.
These migrants are the prey of traffickers, when they do not die while attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean, and Libya is regularly singled out by NGOs for the ill-treatment inflicted on them.
Departures from Libya are most often from the west coast, more rarely from the east coast, near the border with Egypt.
Since the beginning of the year, 14,157 migrants have been intercepted and brought back to Libya, according to a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) published on Monday.
At least 216 people have died attempting the crossing and 724 are missing and presumed dead, according to IOM.