
Audio By Carbonatix
The bodies of at least 15 migrants, including a girl, have washed ashore along Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast over the past week after their boat was believed to have capsized, security, navy and medical sources told Reuters on Saturday.
The vessel was carrying around 61 people, according to 10 survivors, a navy source said.
The bodies were recovered from several places along the coastline of Tobruk, a city near the Egyptian border, the sources added. Two security officials said the remains were badly decomposed and warned that more bodies could still be found.
Images posted on Facebook by the Tobruk Red Crescent showed volunteers in white hazmat suits recovering bodies from rocky shorelines and placing them into white plastic bags.
Since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean.
The oil-dependent Libyan economy is also a draw for impoverished migrants seeking work.
Separately, the Emergency Medicine and Support Centre in Khumas city, which operates under the health ministry in the capital Tripoli, said its medics treated 13 migrants after their boat capsized off the coast.
Latest Stories
-
Ghana’s non-traditional exports exceed $5bn mark
5 minutes -
Stanbic Bank rewards FIFA World Cup winners and launches new Visa local card usage initiative
7 minutes -
Handicrafts sector records 500% growth in exports – GEPA
11 minutes -
Emirates expands operations in Ghana with additional weekly flights
12 minutes -
Fire destroys six apartments, leaves 15 homeless at Aboabo
15 minutes -
Afenyo-Markin urges NPP unity, accuses NDC of failing Ghanaians
18 minutes -
Alleged fugitive car snatcher arrested, colleagues gunned down
21 minutes -
Police clamp down on siren abuse, arrest 19
25 minutes -
Man found dead at TMA forecourt, investigation underway
28 minutes -
TMA warns public against walking through floodwaters
31 minutes -
Eleven Farmer Service Centres to be ready in October – Coordinator
34 minutes -
Fathers urged to raise children in Godly ways for national development
37 minutes -
Bernard Ahiafor commends fathers on Father’s Day
40 minutes -
Many young people say AI has become the new study companion
43 minutes -
Duty bearers urged to address barriers hindering rights of women with disabilities
46 minutes