Photo credit: DW
At least 17 migrants died and nine are missing after their boat broke down and drifted for eight days in the Mediterranean Sea, Libya’s Red Crescent and Libyan security sources said on Wednesday.
Asharq Al-Awsat reports that the Red Crescent said that the volunteers in cooperation with naval forces and coast guards of the Libyan National Army rescued seven survivors during recovery operations off Tobruk city in eastern Libya.
Libya is a transit route for migrants, many of them from sub-Saharan Africa, who risk their lives to flee to Europe across desert and sea in the hope of escaping conflict and poverty. The security sources said they expected the bodies of the nine missing migrants to wash ashore in the next few days.
Pictures posted on the internet by the Red Crescent showed the volunteers placing the bodies in black plastic bags and loading them into the back of pick up vehicles, Reuters reported.
