42 presumed dead in migrant boat shipwreck off Libyan coast: IOM

Geneva: The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday that a rubber boat carrying 49 migrants and refugees capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving 42 people presumed dead.

In a statement, the IOM said Libyan authorities carried out a search and rescue operation on November 8 near the Al Buri Oil Field after the vessel, which had departed from the Libyan coastal city of Zuwara, capsized.

According to survivors, the boat left Zuwara on November 3. About six hours after its departure, high waves caused the engine to fail, overturning the vessel and throwing all passengers into the sea, Xinhua news agency reported.

After drifting for six days, seven were rescued — four from Sudan, two from Nigeria and one from Cameroon. The 42 missing migrants are presumed dead, including 29 from Sudan, eight from Somalia, three from Cameroon and two from Nigeria, the IOM said.

According to data from the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, more than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Central Mediterranean so far this year.

Last week, Libya’s Ministry of Defence, under the UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), announced that it targeted several boats used for smuggling illegal migrants in northwestern Libya.

According to a post by the state-run Libya National TV on social media platform Facebook, the airstrikes, conducted inside Zuwara Port, about 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, were carried out with precision and without causing any human casualties.

Field sources told the channel that the airstrikes followed close monitoring and tracking of smuggling networks operating in the area.

According to the ministry, the operation was part of ongoing security efforts to combat human trafficking networks and curb the flow of migrants through Libya’s coastal areas.

Due to the insecurity and chaos that followed the country’s 2011 uprising, Libya has become a hotspot for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores.

IANS