At least 50 migrants, including women and children, are missing after a wooden boat capsized Tuesday off Libya’s
eastern coast near Tobruk, two security sources told Reuters.
According to a Reuters report that around 50 migrants are missing, the boat was carrying approximately 60 people when it sank. Rescue teams managed to save 10 migrants near Bardaa Island, west of Tobruk.
Survivors said the boat had left the Libyan coast at dawn with migrants from several sub-Saharan African countries on board.
In a separate incident in the same region, rescue teams in Tobruk recovered the bodies of four migrants and rescued 14 others on July 13 after locating their boat adrift in Libyan waters.
According to authorities, the boat had been stranded at sea for nearly two weeks in extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.
Sources also noted that last June, authorities in eastern Libya recovered the bodies of 26 migrants after another shipwreck off the coast of Tobruk.
These latest tragedies further illustrate the extreme risks faced by migrants using the Central Mediterranean route, one of the world’s deadliest migration routes, as departures from the Libyan coast continue despite the dangers and surveillance operations.
According to Reuters, the search continues for those still missing.
MK/AK/Sf/fss/as/APA