GRABOULI, Libya: Libyan coastguards have recovered 11 bodies of migrants, including a minor, after a boat bound for Europe capsized off the coast of the North African country.
The Coast Guard also rescued at least four survivors from the wreck who were able to swim to shore after the incident. In the town of Garaboli, about 50 kilometers east of Tripoli, authorities were alerted to the presence of bodies floating in the water a few meters from the shore.
The bodies of 10 men and a girl were recovered and placed in white body bags, a journalist said, and survivors who were drowned in too much water to escape on foot were rescued. The survivors lay down on the grass and tried to catch their breath and gain stability after receiving food and drink from rescuers.
More than 80 people were on board the boat before it sank near the coastline, one of the survivors said.
Some fled the area after swimming back to shore, but the fate of other migrants was not immediately clear.
According to the passports produced by the survivors, the people on board the crashed plane were of various nationalities, including Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan.
In the evening, the Coast Guard conducted a second mission to rescue migrants aboard another boat off the same town.
“We rescued 61 migrants who were on another boat and they are all safe… They are from Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and African countries,” a Garbuli coast guard official told JEE News”.
More than a decade of violence in Libya since the fall and assassination of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 has helped turn the country into a breeding ground for human traffickers accused of abuses ranging from extortion to slavery. .
