TRIPOLI: Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 illegal migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi's fall in 2011, the North African country is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years.

Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters the 28 migrants, including four women, had been found after sunset by the fishermen who towed the vessel to shore. The victims were buried together in a cemetery for illegal migrants, he said.

"Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken," he said. He did not give details on any of the nationalities but many illegal migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Smugglers often pack migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies, dispatching them to sea to get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coastguard. </s> TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, the North African country has become the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years.

The 28 migrants, including four women, were found after sunset by the fishermen, who towed the vessel to shore, Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters. The victims were buried together in a cemetery for illegal migrants, he said.

“Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken,” he said. He did not give details on any of the nationalities, but many illegal migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Smugglers often pack migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies, dispatching them to sea to get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coastguard.

U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler sharply criticized conditions in Libyan refugee camps in an interview with German broadcaster Bayerischen Rundfunk.

“The camps are in terrible condition. Women are being sexually abused, people are crowded together in small buildings and are being kept like animals. These are intolerable conditions that must be changed,” he said.

Kobler said it was important to improve conditions in the camps, but the biggest priority should be to address the underlying reasons for the migration flows.

The U.N. migration agency last week reported that growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are traded in what they call slave markets before being held for ransom, forced labour or sexual exploitation.

Libya is the main gateway for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than 150,000 people making the crossing in each of the past three years.

So far this year, an estimated 26,886 migrants have crossed to Italy, over 7,000 more than during the same period in 2016. More than 600 are known to have died at sea, while an unknown number perish during their journey north through the desert.

The German foreign ministry concluded in January that African migrants face executions, torture and other systematic rights abuses in camps in Libya, according to media reports. </s> TRIPOLI - Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 illegal migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, the North African country is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years. Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters the 28 migrants, including four women, had been found after sunset by the fishermen who towed the vessel to shore.

Meanwhile, nearly 9,000 mainly African migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean this past long weekend after being put by smugglers in Libya onto unseaworthy boats heading toward Italy, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday.

The migrants, many from Nigeria and Senegal with some from Bangladesh, are among an estimated 20,000 held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centres in Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

On release, they pay to board the overcrowded boats, often just inflated rubber vessels that could not cross the Mediterranean, in the hope of starting a new life in Europe.

“It is obvious that better spring weather has encouraged smugglers to take people from their detention centres,” IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle told a news briefing in Geneva.

“The smugglers have clearly taken them to sea and pushed them out in the hope and belief that they would be rescued.”

More than 35 vessels, including private charity boats, the European Union border agency Frontex, the Italian and Libyan coast guards and 12 merchant ships were involved in rescuing dozens of vessels, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

“This was an overwhelming search and rescue activity by all sides involved,” UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said.

“We repeat our calls on Europe, on the governments, to be out there saving lives. NGOs have been a great help in terms of filling up that vacuum,” he added.

At least 900 migrants have died or have gone missing while attempting to reach Europe by sea so far this year, including 97 missing in the latest incidents between Thursday and Sunday, during which time 18 bodies were also found, Doyle said.

Some 36,000 migrants have been rescued, against 24,000 at this time last year, he said.

IOM reported earlier this month that growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are traded in what they call “slave markets” before being held for ransom, forced labour or sexual exploitation.

“So there’s a full-on economy of trafficking or trading in migrants who think they are going to a better life in Europe and end up effectively in a gulag of exploitation,” Doyle said. </s> Almost 30 migrants have been found dead in a boat drifting off the coast of Libya as the number of refugees dying in attempts to reach Europe reach record highs.

Fishermen found the bodies of 28 people, including four children, in waters near the smuggling hub of Sabratha after more than 8,300 asylum seekers were rescued over the Easter weekend.

“Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken,” said the interior ministry’s security commander, Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam.

He said the victims appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their vessel was left drifting in the Mediterranean.

They were buried in a cemetery dedicated to migrants whose bodies are regularly washed up on the coast of Libya, which remains embroiled in a bloody civil war six years after the UK helped overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

Smugglers have increasingly resorted to packing migrants into flimsy dinghies that are unable to survive the crossing to Europe, with some being intercepted and forced back by the Libyan coastguard, others being rescued by EU officials and aid agencies, and many sinking.

Tuesday’s tragic discovery with the latest incident of refugees being found dead inside boats, with a worrying trend emerging suggesting engines are being removed or sabotaged at sea.

The bodies of more than 70 migrants washed up in a dinghy in Zawiyah earlier this year in what aid agencies said suggested the “deliberate punishment or murder of migrants”.

Joel Millman, from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said that boat’s engine was believed to have been removed at sea, possibly by smugglers or armed gangs.

“In most cases you don’t find remains in a boat – you find them washed up or floating, although there have been cases of suffocation on board,” he told The Independent.

“We have heard about arguments occurring with smugglers, where people refuse to get in a boat because they are concerned it isn’t seaworthy.

“Then there’s violence and people are killed, while the rest are forced inside.”

The latest disaster came as the Austrian government called for the Central Mediterranean passage to be shut down, like the crossing from Turkey to Greece and Balkans route.

“A rescue in the open sea cannot be a ticket to Europe, because it hands organised traffickers every argument to persuade people to flee for economic reasons,” interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka told Germany’s DPA news agency.

“[Stopping crossings to Europe] is the only way to end the tragic and senseless deaths in the Mediterranean.”

His comments followed months of growing political attacks on NGOs, who say they have no involvement in trafficking and are only conducting search and rescue missions because of the EU’s failure to tackle the refugee crisis.

More than 5,000 refugees were drowned, suffocated or died of hypothermia at sea in 2016 – the vast majority on the Central Mediterranean route from Libya, which is now the deadliest crossing in the world.

That total is expected to be surpassed this year, with the official UN death toll already nearing 1,000 even before the start of the peak season.

The controversial EU-Turkey deal slowed comparatively shorter and safer boat crossings over the Aegean Sea to a trickle last year, but the number of migrants on the treacherous passage from Libya to Italy has continued to increase.

More than 40,000 asylum seekers have been taken to shore by rescue ships in Italy so far this year, while others arrive in Spain, Greek islands and Cyprus.

The arrivals are putting huge pressure on the Italian government, which is already housing around 176,000 migrants in reception facilities, while thousands more remain trapped in Greece, Serbia and across Europe.

European leaders met in Malta earlier this year to discuss efforts to stem the crisis but resolutions to increase funding and support for Libyan authorities were criticised amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses.

The country remains divided between battling militias accused of kidnapping, torturing, detaining and ransoming migrants or forcing them into labour and prostitution as a source of income.

Nato has received a request from the fragile Libyan Government of National Accord for support, while Italy has pledged millions of euros in funding for anti-smuggling initiatives.

It is preparing to deliver patrol boats to the country’s coastguard, which is itself accused of killing and beating migrants, for increased push-back operations.

Flavio di Giacomo, an IOM spokesman in Italy, said the vessels’ imminent arrival could be driving a dramatic increase in attempted crossings that saw more than 8,300 people arrested from 55 boats over the Easter weekend.

The rescues saw 13 bodies recovered, including that of an eight-year-old boy.

Mr di Giacomo said smugglers are telling their customers: “'You have to hurry up and leave the country right now because otherwise in a couple of months you will be rescued by the Libyan coast guard and you will be sent back,' which is the last things that migrants would like to do.” </s> A boat carrying up to 70 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa has sunk in the Mediterranean, leaving three people dead and dozens missing, Tunisian officials said Friday, revealing once again that crossing the central Mediterranean has become more treacherous than ever for migrants trying to reach Europe.

The bodies of three people who drowned in the accident were found Friday, a spokesman for the Tunisian defense ministry said, adding the boat left Zuwara on the northwestern Libyan coast on Thursday.

A fishing boat picked up 16 survivors, who were transferred on board one of three military vessels involved in the search and rescue operation.

A helicopter was also mobilized, the defense ministry said, adding between 60 to 70 people were believed to be on board.

Interior ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag said however around 75 people are believed to have been on board the Italy-bound boat when it departed Libya.

An official with the International Organization for Migration in Tunisia said the smuggling boat was coming from Libya when it sent a distress signal in international waters early Friday off the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax. The official said between 60 and 70 people drowned.

The boat sank 40 nautical miles off the coast of Sfax, south of the capital Tunis. The Tunisian coast has turned into a launch pad for thousands of migrants, including Tunisians, who seek to reach Europe.

The IOM official says the migrants are now being questioned and cared for by Tunisian authorities. She said the migrants included people from Bangladesh and Morocco, among other nationalities.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has vowed to close the country's ports to migrants, although earlier Friday dozens who had been rescued at sea disembarked in Sicily.

The Mediterranean is the "world's deadliest sea crossing" according to the United Nations refugee agency, with one person in 14 dying on the route from Libya to Europe last year.

In the face of Gen. Khalifa Haftar's weeks-long violent offensive in Libya, fear has grown that the violent clashes would prompt a new wave of migration.

The turmoil engulfing the North African country has become a death trap for thousands of migrants, most of them from sub-Saharan African countries, seeking to escape poverty and find a better life in Europe.

The U.N. considers Libya an unsafe country for migrants, given the considerable risk of being subjected to serious human rights abuses. Thousands of migrants who have been caught trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya have been returned to the North African country and put in detention centers. </s> More than 700 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya have been rescued in the Mediterranean sea today.

Refugees fleeing the troubled country on small inflatable dinghies were rescued by emergency teams as they sailed toward the Italian coast, about 17 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, earlier this morning.

Members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, a group set up to help rescue migrants at sea, helped pull them from their inflatable boats before handing them over to the Italian coastguards operating in the area.

Thousands of migrants try each year to flee Libya and make it to Italy but many drown during the crossing.

They cram into boats that are small and unsafe for the 190-mile perilous journey from Libya's shores.

A total of 4,027 migrants and refugees have perished since January trying to flee wars and poverty looking for a better life mainly in Europe, the International Organisation for Migration said last week.

Of that total, some 3,120 died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, including 120 who drowned off Libya's coastal town of Sabratha at the end of July, it said. </s> The boat sank 40 miles off the coast of Sfax in Tunisia

The boat sank 40 miles off the coast of Sfax in Tunisia

A BOAT CARRYING around 70 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa has sunk in the Mediterranean, leaving at least 50 people dead, Tunisian officials have said.

The bodies of three people who drowned in the accident were found today, a spokesman for the Tunisian defence ministry said, adding the boat left Zuwara on the northwestern Libyan coast yesterday.

A fishing boat has picked up 16 survivors, who were transferred on board one of three military vessels involved in the search and rescue operation, said the spokesman Mohamed Zekri.

A Maltese helicopter was also mobilised, he said.

According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 50 people have died.

According to those rescued between 60 to 70 people from sub-Saharan Africa were thought to be on board the boat, which was travelling to Italy, Zekri added.

Interior ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag said however around 75 people were believed to have been on board the boat bound for Italy when it departed Libya.

Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has vowed to close the country’s ports to migrants, although earlier today dozens who had been rescued at sea disembarked in Sicily.

Rome’s populist government has taken an increasingly hard line on migration, and Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League party, last month signed a new directive banning charity vessels from rescuing migrants off Libya.

The Mediterranean is the “world’s deadliest sea crossing” according to the United Nations refugee agency, with one person in 14 dying on the route from Libya to Europe last year.

The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights NGO denounced in a statement what it said were the European Union’s “restrictive and inhumane policies” which it said led to the latest “human tragedy”.

Libya, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi, has long been a major transit route for people desperate to reach Europe.

These latest deaths bring to 493 the total for 2019 to date, with 307 reported on the Central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy, according to the IOM. This compares with 620 deaths confirmed during the same period in 2018, including 383 deaths on the Libya-Italy route.

Over the past week, and despite a surge in violence following the launch of an assault on Tripoli by strongman Khalifa Haftar, Libyan authorities have rescued hundreds of migrants stranded at sea.

© AFP 2019 with reporting from Associated Press </s> TRIPOLI, April 13 (Reuters) - Close to 100 migrants were feared missing after their boat sank off the Libyan coast near Tripoli on Thursday, a coastguard official said.

Coastguard spokesman Ayoub Qassem said 23 migrants were rescued from the craft off Gargaresh, a western suburb of Tripoli. Survivors said the inflatable boat had set off with about 120 people on board.

"Some 97 are still missing, including 15 women and children," Qassem said. "What happened is that the base of the boat got wrecked and the boat had sunk."

Libya is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea, and more than 150,000 have made the crossing from Libya to Italy in each of the past three years.

Smugglers put most of the migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies that get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coastguard. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Toby Chopra) </s> CAIRO (AP) — The Libyan coast guard says 97 migrants are missing and believed drowned after their Europe-bound boat sank on a perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea.

Spokesman Ayoub Gassim says 23 migrants were rescued around 6 miles (10 kilometers) off the coast after authorities received a distress call Thursday morning.

Fifteen women and five children are among those still missing.

He says the boat, which was loaded with African nationals seeking a better life in Europe, "completely collapsed."

Chaotic Libya has become a major avenue of migration, with thousands braving the dangerous sea crossing to Europe. More than 4,500 migrants perished on the crossing in 2016 alone.
Libyan fisherman discover the bodies of 28 migrants in a broken-down boat off the coast of Sabratha.