At least 90 migrants died after a boat capsized off the coast of Libya on Friday, the International Organization for Migration said. As many as ten bodies have washed up on Libyan shores so far, the organisation’s spokesperson in Libya, Olivia Headon, said.
Of these ten, eight are believed to be bodies of Pakistani migrants, and two of Libyans. At least two survivors swam to the shore, while another was rescued by a fishing boat, the spokesperson added.
The International Organization for Migration is working to get more details of the incident and look for the best ways to assist survivors, Headon said.
The United Nations migration agency said that 6,624 migrants from Libya arrived in European countries by sea in January 2018. Of these, 240 were Pakistanis who travelled to Italy. As many as 243 migrants drowned, the agency said.
“There is no way to predict the number of deaths we record – almost all migrants who die in the Mediterranean are victims of chance,” Julia Black, coordinator of the UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project said. The Missing Migrants Project has recorded more than 3,000 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean every year since 2014. (Scroll )
