ALBAWABA - At least 61 people have been reportedly missing and presumed dead after a migrant boat capsized near Libya's coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Saturday.
The IOM's Libya office said in a statement to AFP that the migrants are believed to have died because of high waves that swamped their vessel after it left from Zuwara, on Libya's northwest coast.
The boat had a total of approximately 86 migrants aboard, including women and children, from Nigeria, Gambia, and other African countries. The IOM reported that 25 migrants were rescued and transferred to a Libyan detention center.
Northern African countries have always been considered a hub for migrants risking dangerous trips through the Mediterranean Sea in hopes of reaching Europe, via Italy.
More than 153,000 migrants arrived in Italy this year from Tunisia and Libya, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR). The United Nations has described the central Mediterranean migration route as the world's deadliest, claiming hundreds of lives each year.
Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesperson, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday that more than 2,250 people died this year on the central Mediterranean migrant route, a "dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea".
In 2022, Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni won elections last year after vowing to stop illegal migration.
Meloni's hard-right government has so far taken numerous measures to restrict the activities of charity ships that save people attempting the perilous crossing from North Africa.
On June 14, a fishing boat loaded with 750 people en route from Libya to Italy, capsized in international waters off southwest Greece coasts. According to survivors, the ship was carrying mainly Syrians, Pakistanis, and Egyptians. Only 104 survived and 82 bodies were recovered.
