The bodies of twenty-eight migrants were discovered on Saturday, December 25, on the west coast of Libya, after the sinking of their boat, we learned from a security source. “Red Crescent teams recovered twenty-eight bodies of dead migrants and found three survivors at two separate locations on the beaches of Al-Allous “, 90 kilometers from the capital Tripoli, explained a local security official to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The state of the bodies in advanced decomposition indicates that the sinking occurred a few days ago”, he added. Images circulated by the local press show the bodies lined up on the shore and then placed in body bags.
In 2021, 1,500 dead off the west coast of Libya
This tragedy comes a few days after the news of the death of 160 migrants in a week after the sinking of their boats off the Libyan west coast, bringing to 1,500 the number of deaths on this route since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
More than 30,000 migrants have also been rescued or intercepted since the start of 2021 off the Libyan coast, according to the IOM. The North African country is an important crossing point for tens of thousands of migrants each year seeking to reach Europe via the Italian coasts, some 300 kilometers away. Mostly from countries of Saharan Africa, the candidates for exile there are the prey of traffickers, when they do not die trying to cross.
Plunged into a major political crisis after the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has faced multiple criticisms for several months for the mistreatment inflicted on migrants.