Libya: 200 feared dead after vessel capsizes

LIBYAN authorities were yesterday faced with the grim task of collecting the bodies of 
migrants who drowned off the western coastal city of Zuwara, with some 200 feared dead in the latest disaster involving desperate people trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.

Bbodies of migrants who drowned off the coast when their boat sank are collected in Zuwara, Libya. Picture: AP

One eye witness saw workers removing bodies from the water and pulling a flooded boat into the harbour that contained several victims floating face down. At least one victim, a man, was wearing a life vest. They were put into body bags and lined up on the waterfront.

Hussein Asheini, the head of Libya’s Red Crescent in Zuwara, said at least 105 people died, some while trapped inside the boat after it capsized. Fishermen and the coast guard found the waterlogged vessel at sea and towed it back to Zuwara, where they had to break the ship’s deck to reach those trapped inside.

“The boat sank out at sea, and a coast guard team is still diving in and checking inside to see if there’s anyone else,” he said. There were conflicting casualty figures and the Red Crescent was still counting the bodies and the survivors, he added.

Overcome with exhaustion after swimming the final 50 yards of his journey, a migrant from Syrial, centre, is helped to shore on the island of Kos. Picture: Getty Images

The United Nations refugee agency said up to 200 people were missing, feared dead, after the Libyan coast guard carried out rescue operations on Thursday for two boats carrying an estimated 500 migrants.

Othman Belbeisi, chief of mission for the International Organisation for Migration for Libya, said: “We are still waiting for more details, but we have learned there were 400 people on one of two boats.”

He said 100 were rescued, including nine women and two girls.

A Bangladeshi diplomat said at least five of his country’s nationals, including a six-month-old baby, were among the dead.

They were among a group of four families from Bangladesh, 31 people in total, Mozammel Haque said. “Luckily, the others had life jackets on, so they managed to stay afloat throughout the night,” he said.

The head of passport control police in Zuwara, Anwar Abu el-Deeb, said his organisation had had no contact with the Italian or any other coast guard in co-ordinating efforts to stop the people smuggling. He said he was unable to estimate the number of boats that leave the city because they departed in secrecy.

The Libyan coast guard does not have enough ships and equipment needed to tackle the issue, while the coast guard in Zuwara is not in operation, said Ayoub Qassem, a spokesman for the navy of Libya’s Islamist-backed Tripoli government, which has been fighting a separate internationally recognised government in the east.

“The coast guard’s capabilities are very weak and that’s what contributes to the rise in migration, in addition to the security situation in the country,” Mr Qassem said. Libya needed “real co-operation”, including on the southern Libyan border, “to lay siege to the problem which is exhausting Libyans”, he said.

He added: “The process is organised and carried out by gangs with various citizenships that are taking advantage of the situation in Libya, along with smugglers from Libya.”

Most of the those rescued came from Syria and sub-Saharan African countries, Mohamed al-Misrati, a spokesman for the Red Crescent in Libya, said.

“You can imagine what they are going through. Some of them are still looking for their friends. We’re trying to speak to them but many of them are too traumatised to even talk about the incident,” he said.

The Red Crescent was trying to provide psychological assistance, in addition to food and water, in shelters for those rescued, he said.

In a separate operation by the Libyan coast guard on Wednesday, 51 people were found dead of suffocation in the hold of a boat, with survivors recounting how smugglers beat them with sticks to keep them under the deck. The Un refugee agency said one survivor described how smugglers forced passengers into the packed hold and demanded money to allow them to come up to breathe fresh air.

Dozens of boats are launched from lawless Libya each week, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of the migrant surge.

Two Libyans accused of people smuggling were arrested in Zuwara on Thursday, a security official in the town said.

The smuggling of people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa from Libya has spiked, as smugglers take advantage of the turmoil in the country to use it as a staging ground for departures to Europe in rickety, overcrowded boats.

Since the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the oil-rich north African country has plunged into chaos. It is divided between an elected parliament and government based in the eastern port city of Tobruk and an Islamist militia-backed government in the capital Tripoli.

Militants from the Islamic State group are also exploiting the chaos.

The Red Crescent’s Mr Misrati said: “As a result of Libya’s armed conflict, stopping the ‘death boats’ cannot be done only by Libya. There must be an international effort to curb this issue.”