From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Apr 01 2009 - 07:04:59 EST
Libya finds 100 bodies of drowned migrants
Wed Apr 1, 2009 9:54am GMT
TRIPOLI, April 1 (Reuters) - Libyan authorities have recovered the bodies of
100 migrants trying to reach Europe who drowned after their boat sank off
Libya, officials said on Wednesday.
"Seventy seven bodies of the migrants washed up in the beach west of Tripoli
late on Tuesday and 23 more bodies were found between Sunday night and
Tuesday," an official told Reuters.
He and other officials believed the migrants were among 365 people who
boarded the ship, which was supposed to hold only 75 people.
The migrants were Somalis, Nigerians, Eritreans, Kurds, Algerians,
Moroccans, Palestinians and Tunisians, officials said. The ship was one of
four migrant boats which had sailed from Libya between Saturday and Sunday,
apparently heading to Italy, Libyan officials said.
Libyan coastguards had rescued 350 migrants, many of them women and
children, after their boat broke down on Sunday near a Libyan offshore
oilfield. they said.
"As for the fate of the two remaining boats, we have information that one
had reached Italy and the latest information we had about the other boat was
it had left Libyan waters and was spotted close to Malta," a Libyan official
said.
There are an estimated 1 to 1.5 million African migrants in Libya, drawn by
the need for unskilled labour, according to International Organisation for
Migration (IOM).
Libya is both a transit and a destination country for migrants. Most take
odd jobs to gather enough money to pay smugglers for the risky journey to
Italy.
IOM and Libyan officials say the new upsurge of illegal migration from North
Africa might have been prompted by fears of migrants and people smugglers
that Libya and Italy would step up crackdown on illegal migration next
month. Tripoli and Rome have reached an agreement on joint sea patrols to
try to stem the flow of illegal migrants. The accord becomes effective on
May 15. (Writing by Lamine Ghanmi)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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