Bodies of infant, child found washed ashore in Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya

The bodies of six migrants including an infant, a child and a woman were discovered washed ashore off Libya on Thursday.

According to local sources, residents of the western city of Zuwara reached out to authorities and shared the information after coming across the corpses.

Security personnel reached the bodies of two children, a woman and three men who were found drowned on a beach.

The victims, whose identities could not be verified, were foreign nationals who sailed to the Mediterranean in rubber boats from Libya.

The sources said a search operation by security officials was continuing along the 90-kilometer (56-mile) coastline and that other bodies could be discovered.

Sources said the bodies may have been at sea for days and remained on the beach for at least two days.

Libya has in recent years become one of the important points in the crossing of African irregular migrants to Europe who have escaped poverty and conflict.

According to UN figures, at least 632 irregular migrants have drowned in marine accidents in the Mediterranean so far this year.

A total of 1,489 migrants were caught at sea from May 16-22 and were sent back to Libya, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).