2 shipwrecks off Libyan coast leave nearly 100 migrants dead in a day

TRIPOLI • Nearly 100 people drowned on Thursday when two vessels carrying migrants sank off the coast of Libya in separate incidents that are the latest in a series of disasters in the world's deadliest sea crossing.

In the first incident in which at least 74 died, a motorised rubber raft, crowded with more than 120 people, had left Khoms, Libya, on Wednesday, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

But the craft, which was ill equipped for the journey across the Mediterranean Sea, capsized on Thursday, it said.

Fishermen and the Libyan coast guard rescued 47 people and recovered 31 bodies, including the remains of at least one child, the United Nations agency said.

Just hours later, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said a second shipwreck off the Libyan coast had killed 20 people.

MSF teams in the north-western coastal city of Sorman "assisted three women as the lone survivors of another shipwreck where 20 people drowned", the group said on Twitter on Thursday.

"Rescued by local fishermen, they were in shock and terrified; they saw loved ones disappear beneath the waves, dying in front of their eyes," it added.

The two deadly incidents are just the latest on the notoriously dangerous journey for migrants travelling from North Africa to Europe, across the Mediterranean.

At least eight other vessels carrying migrants have sunk in the central Mediterranean since Oct 1. And at least 900 people have drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe this year, some because of delayed rescue missions.

More than 11,000 others rescued or intercepted at sea have been returned to Libya, putting them at risk of human rights abuses, including detention, abuse, trafficking and exploitation, the IOM said.

In the past two days alone, at least 19 people, including two children, have drowned after two boats capsized in the central Mediterranean, while Open Arms - the only ship operating in the area that is run by a non-governmental organisation - has rescued more than 200 people in three operations, the UN agency said.

"The mounting loss of life in the Mediterranean is a manifestation of the inability of states to take decisive action to redeploy much needed, dedicated search-and-rescue capacity in the deadliest sea crossing in the world," said Mr Federico Soda, the organisation's chief of mission in Libya.

The twin disaster comes weeks after at least 140 migrants drowned when their boat sank off Senegal in the deadliest wreck this year.

NYTIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE