Photo credit: Arab News
At least five bodies of migrants, including two women, have been washed ashore in Qasar al-Akyyar, a coastal town in the east of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, a police officer told Reuters on Saturday.
Hassan Al-Ghawil, head of investigations at the Qasr Al-Akhyar police station, said that according to people in the area, a child’s body washed ashore and because of the waves’ height, the body returned to the sea, and the coast guard was asked to search for it.
Ghawil said the bodies are all dark-skinned people. The bodies were found on Emhamed Al-Sharif shore in the western part of the town by people who reported to the police station.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Gaddafi to a NATO-backed uprising. Factional conflict has split the country into western and eastern factions since 2014.
Qasr al-Akhyar is a central town some 73 kilometres east of Tripoli.
“We reported to the Red Crescent to recover the bodies,” said Ghawil. “The bodies we found are still intact, and we think there are more bodies to wash ashore.”
