Monitoring Desk
GENEVA: The United Nations (UN) said Wednesday that at least 73 migrants are believed to have died in a shipwreck off Libya, with only seven survivors found so far.
“At least 73 migrants are missing and feared to be dead following a tragic shipwreck off the Libyan coast on Tuesday,” the UN’s International Organization for Migration said.
The boat carrying around 80 people had departed Qasr Al-Akhyar, some 46 miles (75 kilometers) east of the capital, Tripoli, and was heading to Europe.
So far, 11 dead bodies have been retrieved by the local police and the Libyan Red Crescent, IOM said.
UN agency says seven survivors rescued
And the UN International Organization for Migration said that “seven survivors who made it back to Libyan shores in extremely serious conditions are currently in the hospital.”
The central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migratory sea crossing in the world.
The latest incident brings the number of deaths there since the beginning of 2023 alone to 130, IOM said.
According to the UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project, over 1,450 migrant deaths were recorded on the same route in 2022.
And over 17,000 deaths and disappearances have been recorded there since 2014.
