GENEVA (AP) — At the least 73 Europe-bound migrants are lacking and presumed lifeless in a shipwreck off Libya, the United Nations migration company mentioned Wednesday.
The U.N. Worldwide Group for Migration mentioned in an announcement that the wreck came about Tuesday, and that Libya authorities have retrieved at the very least 11 our bodies.
It mentioned the boat, carrying round 80 migrants, reportedly departed the village of Qasr al-Khayar, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli. The migrants had been heading to European shores, it mentioned.
Seven migrants survived the shipwreck and made it to Libyan shores, the U.N. mentioned, in “extraordinarily dire situations.” They had been taken to a hospital.
Tuesday’s shipwreck was the most recent sea tragedy within the central Mediterranean, a key route for migrants. The tragedy took the loss of life tally on that path to at the very least 130 migrants this yr, IOM mentioned.
Libya has lately emerged because the dominant transit level for migrants from Africa and the Center East making an attempt to make it to Europe. The oil-rich nation plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed rebellion that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.