Libya’s coast guard recovered dozens of bodies of Europe-bound migrants who perished at sea as search operations continued on Friday, a day after up to 150 people, including women and children, went missing and were feared drowned after their boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
A top UN official described Thursday’s shipwreck as “the worst Mediterranean tragedy” so far this year. Also Friday, Libyan authorities transferred dozens of migrants rescued from the disaster to a detention center near Tripoli that was hit by an airstrike earlier this month despite UN objections to such a move, the UN refugee agency said.
The Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency in the capital, Tripoli, said that up to 350 migrants were on board the boats that capsized on Thursday off the coast of the Libyan town of Khoms, around 120 kilometers east of Tripoli.
The migrants include nationals from Eretria, Egypt, Sudan and Libya, the agency said. Libyan officials said more than 130 migrants have been rescued since Thursday. At least a dozen were taken to a hospital in Khoms while the rest were transferred to different detention centres.