Red Crescent finds bodies of 85 migrants washed up on Libyan beach
Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:27:am Gist
2K By Buchi Obichie
A Red Crescent official, Al-Khamis Al-Bosaifi, disclosed on Thursday, that the bodies of at least 85 migrants who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean were found washed up on a beach in western Libya near the city of Zuwara.
The surge in departures from the North African coast towards Italy, has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of migrants this week.
Al-Bosaifi said aid workers were still recovering the bodies of the migrants; many of them women, and that the circumstances in which they died were not clear.
A Tripoli Coastguard Spokesman stated that rougher seas had prevented patrols, and that no migrant boats had been intercepted over the past two days.
This year, more than 40,000 migrants who pay smugglers to ferry them, have crossed the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Italy. These desperate migrants pay the smugglers hundreds of dollars for a place on rickety boats which often sink or are picked up by International Rescue Missions.
The smugglers, often working with local militias, have exploited political chaos and lawlessness to expand their activities along routes from sub-Saharan Africa.
The head of the European Union's Mediterranean naval mission recently said that people-smuggling to Europe, was estimated to account for between 30 and 50% of the GDP in northwestern Libya.
The surge in departures from the North African coast towards Italy, has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of migrants this week.
Al-Bosaifi said aid workers were still recovering the bodies of the migrants; many of them women, and that the circumstances in which they died were not clear.
A Tripoli Coastguard Spokesman stated that rougher seas had prevented patrols, and that no migrant boats had been intercepted over the past two days.
This year, more than 40,000 migrants who pay smugglers to ferry them, have crossed the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Italy. These desperate migrants pay the smugglers hundreds of dollars for a place on rickety boats which often sink or are picked up by International Rescue Missions.
The smugglers, often working with local militias, have exploited political chaos and lawlessness to expand their activities along routes from sub-Saharan Africa.
The head of the European Union's Mediterranean naval mission recently said that people-smuggling to Europe, was estimated to account for between 30 and 50% of the GDP in northwestern Libya.
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