Coast guards say over 90 migrants missing after boat sank off Libya

Barely two days after rescue officials had a torrid time trying to recover bodies of drowned migrants in the Mediterranean; a coastguard spokesman has revealed that more than 90 migrants are believed to be missing after their boat sank off the coast off western Libya.

According to the spokesman Ayoub Qassem, the coastguards had rescued 29 migrants some 26 miles off the shore east of Tripoli, and that survivors said 126 people had been on the rubber boat before one of the sides was ripped and it started taking in water.

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Qassem said the boat that sank on Wednesday had left at dawn from Garabulli, about 50km (31 miles) east of Tripoli.

“Because of overcrowding one of the sides of the boat got torn and water leaked in,” he said. “Ninety-seven illegal migrants are still missing or they have drowned.”

Libya is the main departure point for mostly African migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Smugglers arrange ill-equipped and overcrowded vessels that frequently break down or sink.

 

 

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