At least 35 are presumed dead after a small wooden boat capsized off the Libyan coast on Friday.
As reported by ABC News, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirmed the news in a tweet on Saturday, writing, “The bodies of six people have been retrieved while 29 others are missing and presumed dead.”
The accident occurred off the western Libyan city of Sabratha, which serves as a launching point for Africans attempting to make the voyage across the Mediterranean. It was not immediately clear what caused the wooden boat to capsize on Friday.
???? A small wooden boat carrying around 35 migrants capsized off Sabratha, #Libya yesterday. The bodies of six people have been retrieved while 29 others are missing and presumed dead. At least 53 migrants have been reported dead or missing off Libya this week alone. pic.twitter.com/XaM5waGp3M
— IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya) April 16, 2022
“Dedicated search and rescue capacity and a safe disembarkation mechanism are urgently needed to prevent further deaths and suffering,” IOM wrote in another tweet.
The shipwreck is just the latest tragedy that’s taken place over the last week involving migrants seeking refuge from North Africa, with a total of at least 53 migrants reported dead or presumed dead off the coast of Libya.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 476 migrants have died along the Central Mediterranean route, according to the IOM.
