A boat carrying at least 50 migrants on Saturday capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Libyan Coast Guard said, while an independent support group said 56 migrants on another boat were “at risk” in the sea.
Coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim told reporters that a shipwreck took place off the western city of Misrata, 187km east of the capital, Tripoli.
The UN agency said that rescue efforts were ongoing on Saturday afternoon and released no details on casualties.
Alarm Phone, an independent support group for people crossing the Mediterranean, said a second boat for migrants was in destress, with “about 56 lives at risk.”
The group said it received a call from migrants on the boat, who left Libya’s shores days ago, saying that “they are desperately calling for help and are afraid to die.”
“They are still in distress at sea with no rescue in sight. They have now been at sea for over 60 hours,” Alarm Phone said.
Libya became a major crossing point for migrants to Europe after the overthrow and death of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, when the North African nation was thrown into chaos, armed militias proliferated and central authority collapsed.
In the past few years, the EU has partnered with the coast guard and other Libyan forces to try to stop the sea crossings.
Rights groups have said those efforts have left migrants at the mercy of armed groups or confined in detention centers.
At least 6,000 migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and other nations are locked in dozens of detention facilities in Libya run by militias accused of torture and other abuses.
There are limited supplies for the migrants, who often end up there after arduous journeys at the mercy of traffickers who hold them for ransom from their families.
In Morocco, the bodies of seven Moroccans were recovered close to Casablanca on Saturday after their boat was shipwrecked trying to reach Spain, Moroccan officials said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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