Up to 150 Libyan migrants bound for Europe are missing and presumed dead in what a top United Nations official called “the worst Mediterranean tragedy” this year.
A spokesman for Libya’s coast guard said that two boats carrying about 300 migrants capsized in the waters east of Tripoli. He said 137 migrants were rescued and brought back to Libya, with the coast guard finding just one body so far. The rest presumably drowned.
A U.N. spokesman, Charlie Yaxley, said that 147 people were saved from the turbulent waters.
“We estimate that 150 migrants are potentially missing and died at sea,” he said. “The dead include women and children.”
“The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.
Yaxley said the journey from North Africa to Europe is treacherous, with one person dying for every six who attempt to take boats from Libya.
Libya, still embroiled in violence between warring factions, has become a nexus for African migrants looking to get to Europe since the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
