More than 150 migrants were missing after their boat sank off coast of Libya in what might be worst tragedy in Mediterranean this year The local reporter said.
“The sinking took place off the coast of the city of Khoms,” some 100 kilometres from Tripoli, said Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) in Libya.
About 145 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard, and survivors had reported that about 150 people remained missing, she said.
General Ayoub Kacem, a spokesman for the Libyan navy, said that “134 migrants were rescued and a body recovered, while 115 other migrants are still missing”.
“A wooden boat carrying around 250 people, including women and children, sank some five nautical miles from the coast according to witness testimony from the migrants who survived,” Kacem said in a statement.
The head of the UN refugee agency Filippo Grandi tweeted that it was “the worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year”.
He said, “Restoring rescue at sea, ending refugee, migrant detention in Libya, increasing safe pathways out of Libya must happen NOW, before it is too late for many more desperate people.”
It comes only a few weeks after some 68 migrants died when an Italy-bound boat sank off Tunisia earlier in July.
the number of immigrants has been significantly decreased in the last one year. With the help of various NGOs, Italy has completely stopped the route of boats coming to Europe.
Over 150 people missing due to Boat sink on Libya coast
