TRIPOLI – A shipwreck off the Libyan coast has killed 20 people, said Doctors Without Borders (MSF), just hours after news of a separate incident in which at least 74 migrants died.
MSF teams in the northwestern coastal city of Sorman “assisted three women as the lone survivors of another shipwreck where 20 people drowned”, tweeted the group yesterday.
“Rescued by local fishermen, they were in shock and terrified; they saw loved ones disappear beneath the waves, dying in front of their eyes.”
Earlier yesterday, the United Nations International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported “a devastating shipwreck that claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants today off the coast of Khoms”, a port city 120km east of the city here.
It said 47 survivors have been brought back to shore and 31 bodies retrieved, adding that the boat was reported to be carrying more than 120 people.
IOM said at least 900 people have drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach European shores – some due to delays in rescue – this year.
More than 11,000 others have been returned to Libya, it said, “putting them at risk of facing human rights violations, detention, abuse, trafficking and exploitation”.
Human traffickers have taken advantage of persistent violence in the country since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, turning Libya into a key corridor for migrants fleeing war and poverty in desperate bids to reach Europe.
While many have drowned at sea, thousands have been intercepted by the coastguard, which has been backed by Italy and the European Union, and returned to Libya.
They mostly end up in detention, often in horrific conditions. – AFP, November 13, 2020
