More than 160 refugees have drowned in wreckage in Libya, UN says | Migration Issues

IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said about 102 refugees had died when the boat capsized on Friday, with 62 others dead in another incident on Saturday.

More than 160 migrants drowned in two wrecks from Libya last week, said a United Nations refugee official.

International Organization for Migration spokesman Safa Msehli said at least 102 people had died after their wooden boat capsized in Libya on Friday. At least eight others were rescued and returned to shore, he said.

The second shipwreck occurred on Saturday. Libyan coast officials have seized at least 62 bodies of migrants, Msehli said. On the same day, coastal guards seized a third wooden boat carrying at least 210 migrants, he said.

The threat was the most recent catastrophe in the Mediterranean Sea affecting European migrants seeking a better life.

The new deaths have resulted in an estimated 1,500 refugees drowning this year, Msehli said.

Recent months have seen a crossing and trying Crossing from Libya as authorities step up to kill migrants in Tripoli’s capital.

About 31,500 migrants were deported and returned to Libya in 2021, compared with about 11,900 migrants last year, according to the IOM. At least 980 migrants have died or are expected to die in 2020, the UN said.

The IOM said 466 refugees had been abducted or rescued at sea and returned to Libya between December 12 and 18.

Libya has become a leading destination for people fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The oil-rich country has plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed coup that overthrew and assassinated former dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Human traffickers have benefited from the turmoil in the oil-rich country and are smuggling across national and six-state borders. They carry looters in boats without rubber bands, and then they embark on a dangerous voyage across the dangerous Mediterranean Sea.

The repatriates have been taken to prison full of cruelty, including forced labor, beatings, rape and torture. These abuses are often accompanied by attempts to extort money from the families of immigrants before being allowed to leave Libya by smuggling boats.

Investigators sent by the UN said in October that the atrocities and abuses of immigrants in Libya would be similar. civil war crimes.