A boat said to be conveying refugees and migrants bound for Europe has capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya’s coast, This has left at least two dozen people dead or missing, the UN migration agency said.
According to Safa Msehki, spokeswoman for the international organization for migration. She told the associated press news agency that Libya’s coast guard had intercepted three boats on Monday and one of them had capsized .
She mentioned that the coast guard had retrieved two bodies and according to the survivors, twenty-two others were still missing.
At about 45 survivors returned to Libya all of them male with majority of them from Morroco and Egypt. They were taken to a detention centre in the Libya capital,Tripoli.
“This new tragedy calls yet again, the need for increased search an rescue capacity in the Mediterranean. Instead, we’re seeing restrictions on non governmental organizations and long stand offs”, Msehki said.
The shipwreck which is the latest maritime disaster involves refugees seeking a better life in Europe.
According to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, More than 560 people are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean.
In August, a boat conveying dozens of refugees and migrants had capsized leaving at about 45 people missing
This had marked the largest number of deaths in a single shipwreck off the coast of the North African country.
