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The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Saturday at least 61 migrants who are presumed dead after their boat sunk off the coast of Libya. The tragic incident is the latest in a string of such incidents off North Africa.
According to a statement from the IOM’s Libya office provided to AFP, migrants may have been killed by high waves that swamped their vessel while leaving Zuwara on Libya’s northwest coast. According to survivors, there were about 86 migrants on board–women and children from Nigeria, the Gambia and other African countries.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) states that twenty-five people were successfully rescued and taken to a Libyan detention center. According to the IOM, all survivors were doing fine and had received medical assistance from an IOM nurse.
Migrants seeking to reach Europe–often via Italy Jordan, Syria and Palestine are other important departure points for dangerous sea voyages. More than 153,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Tunisia and Libya this year according to the United Nations refugee agency. The far-right government led by Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also taken actions to curb the operations of charity ships in central Mediterranean rescue missions.
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On a recent visit to Rome, Meloni and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak both pledged not only to prevent migrant boat landings on their countries ‘shores but also stepped up the fight against human smugglers. The United Nations has termed this migration route through the central Mediterranean as world’s deadliest, with many lives lost every year.
Statements on the social media platform X by Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesperson for International Organization for Migration (IOM), show that more than 2,250 people have died trying to cross the central Mediterranean migrant route this year alone. He says that this figure was a pathetic indicator of how little is being done to save lives at sea.
The most tragic incident was the Adriana, a fishing boat with 750 passengers from Libya bound for Italy which sank in international waters off southwest Greece on June 14. Survivors say the passengers were mostly Syrians, Pakistanis and Egyptians; 104 survived while only 82 bodies have been found. Prolonged chaos and instability in Libya have created a space hospitable to human trafficking, according to certain estimates. Traffickers are not only extortionists but also slavers as well.
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