• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

More Than 100 Migrants Missing off Libyan Coast: NGOs

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
07/25/19
in Featured, Refugees, World
Migrants hang from a boat as they wait to be rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, some 12 nautical miles north of Libya,

While the total number of arrivals to the EU has dropped, the rate of deaths across the Mediterranean has sharply increased. Photo: Aris Messins, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

More than 100 migrants were missing after their boat sank off the coast of Libya in what might be the worst tragedy in the Mediterranean this year, aid agencies said Thursday.

“The sinking took place off the coast of the city of Khoms,” some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Tripoli, said Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organisation of Migration in Libya.

About 145 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard, and survivors had reported that about 150 people remained missing, she said.

General Ayoub Kacem, a spokesman for the Libyan navy, said that “134 migrants were rescued and a body recovered, while 115 other migrants are still missing.”

“A wooden boat carrying around 250 people, including women and children, sank some five nautical miles from the coast, according to witness testimony from the migrants who survived,” Kacem said in a statement.

The charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said as many as 250 migrants were still missing.

The migrants had been apparently headed out to sea on three boats lashed together, MSF mission chief Julien Raickman told AFP by telephone.

He said survivors had reported a total of almost 400 people on board.

Kacem said most of the rescued migrants were from Ethiopia while others were Palestinians and Sudanese. The coastguard was waiting for authorities to provide accommodation for them.

The head of the U.N. refugee agency Filippo Grandi tweeted that it was “the worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year.”

“Restoring rescue at sea, ending refugee + migrant detention in Libya, increasing safe pathways out of Libya must happen NOW, before it is too late for many more desperate people,” he added.

The capsize came only a few weeks after some 68 migrants died when an Italy-bound boat sank off Tunisia.

That vessel, filled with mostly African migrants, tipped over shortly after setting out from the Libyan town of Zuwara, west of Tripoli, with the aim of reaching Italy.

Libya, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that killed president Moamer Kadhafi, has long been a major transit route for migrants, especially from sub-Saharan Africa, desperate to reach Europe.

Humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee said Sunday it had relaunched rescue efforts off Libya seven months after abandoning operations as European ports refused to accept the migrants.

The Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking will “conduct search and rescue activities in the central Mediterranean” for SOS Mediterranee and MSF, the group said in a statement.

It said the exodus from Libya was “one of the most perilous sea crossings in the world.”

After nearly three years of operations in which it rescued some 30,000 migrants, the Aquarius had been forced to cease operations because of what the group said was obstruction by some European countries.

Italy’s populist-dominated government has become particularly hardline against accepting undocumented migrants on its territory.


More on the Subject 

The Unacknowledged Costs of the EU’s Migration Policy in Libya

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

migrants
Refugees

18 Europe-Bound Migrants Drown Off Libya: Coastguard

by Staff Writer
August 25, 2021
It is estimated that nearly 20,000 foreign troops and mercenaries remained in Libya at the end of 2020.
World

UN Calls for Withdrawal of Foreign Troops, Mercenaries From Libya

by Staff Writer
March 13, 2021
Amazighan women with their children. Photo: Fadel Senna/AFP
World

Berbers: North Africa’s Marginalized Indigenous People

by Staff Writer
December 2, 2020
A migrant boat off the coast of Libya.
Refugees

At Least 74 Migrants Dead in Shipwreck Off Libya: UN

by Staff Writer
November 12, 2020
African migrants seeking to cross to the Canary Islands typically travel in small wooden boats like these
Refugees

27 Dead in Mauritania Migrant Boat Disaster: UN

by Staff Writer
August 7, 2020
Migrants fleeing Libyan waters to settle in Europe
Refugees

After ‘Hell’ in Libyan Jails, Migrants Reunite Aboard Rescue Boat

by Staff Writer
July 6, 2020
Next Post
Protestor in Puerto Rico, where the nation angry over corruption and the release of insulting text chats

Puerto Rico’s Democratic Revolt Result of Decades of Mounting Tectonic Pressure

A high school classroom

Catalonia’s Education System: Indoctrination, Victimization, and Linguistic ‘Spies’

Recommended

A man holds US, Taiwan flags

US and Taiwan Ink Trade Deal as China Issues Warning

June 2, 2023
Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

Militia Leader Gets 18 Years in Prison Over US Capitol Attack

May 26, 2023
Customers queue to enter a re-opened Zara clothes shop

EU Targets Fast Fashion in Push for Durable Goods

May 23, 2023
A billboard showing the debt limit is seen in Washington, D.C.

US Republicans Upbeat on Prospects for Debt Deal

May 19, 2023
Military hardware rolls through Dvortsovaya Square during a Victory Day military parade in central Saint Petersburg

Pressing Russia, US Shares Nuclear Warhead Data Under Treaty

May 16, 2023

Opinion

Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

A Supreme Folly 

April 24, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post