Rome (Kaab TV) – At least 55 people drowned after a boat sank off the coast of Libya, according to the U.N. migration agency.
It is the latest in a series of deadly accidents in just a few days involving migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The boat left Garabouli, a town east of Tripoli, Libya’s capital, yesterday morning. Only five survivors were brought to shore by the Libyan coast guard.
Human rights organizations have for years protested the lack of preventive search and rescue patrols by countries around the Mediterranean.
After the dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi was toppled and killed in 2011, Libya descended into civil war, and its territory remains divided among warring factions.
It has become a major transit point to Europe for tens of thousands of African migrants. With few pathways for legal migration available, many pay smugglers to help them make the dangerous sea crossing.
Toll: In total, 661 people have died in the central Mediterranean this year, according to Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesman for the U.N. migration agency.
The number of deaths at sea includes people who went “missing” but after some hours are considered dead.