Two migrant boats capsize off Libya with about 150 people missing

Two boats carrying migrants to Europe capsized just off Libya on Thursday,
with up to 150 people missing and feared to have drowned, Reuters reported.

The boats, which were carrying around 300 migrants in total, capsized about 75 miles (120km) east of the capital, Tripoli.

A total of 137 people were rescued by Libyan coast guards and local fishermen and were returned to Libya, while only one dead body had been recovered by the coastguard at the time of reporting, according to Ayoub Gassim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard.

The occupants were reportedly from Eritrea and other sub-Saharan Africa and Arab countries. Thousands of migrants and refugees see Libya as a hub to get to Europe.

The confirmed death toll since the beginning of the year was 164 for those
who were using unseaworthy boats, according to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

If the information from Thursday’s tragedy is confirmed, the death toll will be the highest count from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean this year.

“The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred,” Filippo
Grandi, head of UNHCR, tweeted.

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said the terrible incident showed once again the urgent need for a change in approach to the Mediterranean situation. “Urgent action is needed to save lives at sea and prevent people from getting on these boats in the first place, by offering safe, legal alternatives,” said Yaxley.

The spokesman called for the survivors’ immediate release as they could face the further risk of being detained in two detention centers in Libya.

Libyan authorities detain the migrants in centers that the UN says are in fact jails, putting them in jeopardy to fight rival Libyan factions. Earlier this month, an airstrike killed more than 50 migrants who were being kept in jails.

At least 2,500 migrants are detained in centers in and around Tripoli that two parties, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Fayez al Sarraj, and the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA), led by General Khalifa Haftar, have been trying to seize.

“We know that inside these detention centers there is insufficient food and
water, and often unsanitary conditions. There have been widespread reports
of human rights violations taking place,” Yaxley further said.

“What’s always so horrifying about these relentless tragedies is that they
should be preventable. Instead of conducting European search and rescue in the Mediterranean, the EU has pulled its forces out. Instead of supporting non-governmental rescue operations, the EU countries have thrown every obstacle in their way,” said Judith Sunderland, associate director for Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. The Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that investigates and reports on the abuse happening around the world.

Libya has been in unrest since the assassination and deposing of Muammar
Gaddafi, Libya’s dictator of four decades, in 2011, being split between the GNA and the LNA.

Syrian refugees in Istanbul given deadline to return to registered provinces

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from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/07/26/two-migrant-boats-capsize-off-libya-with-about-150-people-missing/