A boat with migrants capsized north off Libya, leaving 51 dead or missing, group says

This is a locator map for Libya with its capital, Tripoli. (AP Photo)

CAIRO — A boat carrying dozens of migrants bound for European shores capsized off the coast of Libya last week, leaving 51 people dead or missing, a monitoring group said on Friday.

Ten migrants survived the shipwreck, which occurred on June 12 in the Mediterranean Sea, off the eastern part of the North African nation, according to the Abreen group, which tracks movements of migrants in eastern Libya.

Eleven bodies were retrieved while 40 others remain missing, the group said.

It was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea. The Libyan coast is one of the main departure points for migrants from North Africa trying to reach European shores for a better life there. They are packed by smugglers into small and unsafe boats, with thousands dying during the perilous sea journey.

The Libyan coast guard and the Red Crescent in the eastern city of Tobruk reported retrieving bodies that started to wash ashore over the past 24 hours. The coast guard posted footage showing rescue teams carrying bodies in white body bags onto the shore.

More than 800 migrants were reported dead or missing in the central Mediterranean route between January 1 and May 16 this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. Last year saw more than 1,300 migrants perish or go missing on that route, it said.

Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, even though the country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed its longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders, which it shares with six nations. The migrants are usually forced to sail on crowded, ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats.

Those who are intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers rife with abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture — practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to UN-commissioned investigators.

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Samy Magdy, The Associated Press