Ekip
October 04, 2016•Update: October 04, 2016
By Osama Ali
TRIPOLI, Libya
At least 30 people were killed when two boats carrying undocumented migrants of various nationalities sank off Libya’s northern coast Monday evening, according to local officials.
"Two boats carrying scores of undocumented migrants sank off the coast of Sabratha [in northwestern Libya]," Bassam al-Gharabali, chairman of Libya’s anti-illegal immigration agency in Sabratha, told Anadolu Agency.
According to al-Gharabali, both ill-fated vessels had set out from destinations along the Libyan coast -- he did not say where exactly -- en route to Europe.
While the official refrained from saying how many people had been aboard the two boats or provide detailed information regarding their nationalities, he noted that survivors had included Libyan, Moroccan and Syrian nationals, including one baby.
"The search for bodies -- and survivors -- remains ongoing," he said.
In a similar incident earlier the same day, local authorities discovered the bodies of 11 undocumented migrants -- and managed to rescue 289 others -- after the boat in which they were travelling sank off the coast near capital Tripoli.
Libyan Navy spokesman Ayoub Qassim told Anadolu Agency that naval forces and Coast Guard teams had picked up 139 of the survivors off Tripoli’s coast and another 150 some 50 kilometers east of the capital.
He did not provide details as to the number of boats involved or the nationalities of the victims or the survivors.
In recent years, undocumented migration has thrived in northwestern Libya, especially in the Al-Qervolla, Sabratha and Zuwara areas, where human smugglers do a brisk business ferrying Arab and African migrants to destinations in Europe.
