An international humanitarian group says a wooden boat that cut off migrants heading for Europe off the coast of Libya has drowned 20 of them. A statement from Doctors Without Borders late Thursday said another shipbreak in the Mediterranean Sea had claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants.
Only three women were rescued by local fishermen The group said on Twitter. The statement said, “They were shocked and terrified; they saw loved ones disappear under the waves, dying before their eyes.”
The wooden boat was carrying 23 foreigners who sailed from Sorman off the coast of Libya, MSF spokeswoman Anas Deprad said, abbreviating the group’s French name, Madison Sans Frontiers.
One of the three survivors lost her husband, her sister and her sister’s 1-year-old child, Depred said.
Alarm Phone, an independent group supporting rescue operations in the Mediterranean, tweeted that they were called to the rescue before the boat sank. The group said it was “repeatedly” requesting search and rescue operations by EU authorities. “In vain. They decided to let them drown. Our hearts are broken,” the group tweeted.
The UN migration agency said on Thursday that at least 74 migrants had drowned when their boat capsized off the coast of the Libyan port of Al-Khums. Only 47 people were rescued and brought ashore by Libyan coast guard and fishermen. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 31 bodies had been exhumed by the end of Thursday as the search for the remaining victims continued.
Sergey Room / AP
In the years following the 2011 uprising that ousted and assassinated longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, war-torn Libya has emerged as a major transit point for migrants hoping to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East. Smugglers always fill desperate families with sickly equipped rubber boats that are stalls and founders on the perilous Mediterranean route. At least 20,000 people have died in those waters since 2014, according to the IOM.
In recent years, the EU has partnered with the Libyan Coast Guard and other local groups to prevent dangerous maritime crossings. Rights groups, however, say those policies leave migrants at the mercy of armed groups or are locked up in unruly detention centers.
Last month, at least 140 migrants trying to reach Europe drowned His boat caught fire and capsized off the coast of Senegal.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 825 migrant deaths were reported in the Mediterranean in 2020. The group says more than 2,500 migrants have died worldwide this year.
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