At least 42 migrants are missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat capsized off the coast of Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
Libyan authorities rescued seven survivors who had drifted at sea for six days after the vessel, carrying 49 people, sank near the Al Buri oilfield, an offshore facility North, North West of the Libyan coast.
IOM said the migrants were from Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Somalia.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Gaddafi during a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, backed uprising.
The number of migrants who drowned in the central Mediterranean had already surpassed 1000 this year, the IOM said, and this week’s incident raised that toll “even further”.
Across the entire Mediterranean, there were 2 452 such deaths in 2024, IOM data shows.
“This tragic event, coming just weeks after other deadly incidents off Surman and Lampedusa, underscores the persistent dangers faced by migrants and refugees along the Central Mediterranean Route,” it said in the statement.
–Reuters–
