UN Migration Agency reports over 20 fatalities in shipwreck off Libya coast

The United Nations agency for migrants on September 15 informed that over 20 migrants died at sea after their boat capsized off Libya's coast. The International Organisation for Migrants (IOM) said that the incident brings to light yet again the need for increased search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean sea. IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli told the Associated Press that Libya's coast guard on September 14 intercepted three boats and one of them had capsized. 

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Msehli said that survivors who were rescued by the coast guards reported 22 people were missing. Libyan coast guard reportedly retrieved two corpses from the sea and others are presumed dead. At least 45 migrants were taken to the shore by the Libyan authorities who later reported that most of them belonged to Egypt and Morocco and all of them were men. 

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Urgent need of migrant policy

Earlier last month, more than 400 refugees were recused in the Mediterranean by various NGO and commercial ships in absence of dedicated EU-led search and rescue capacity. The United Nations has repeatedly called for an agreement between the EU states on migrant policy, a lack of which is causing hundreds of lives each year in the region. 

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In August, 45 people died when a boat carrying migrants capsized in Central Mediterranean. In the same month, IOM reported that 48 corpses were washed ashore at Libyan coasts after four ships capsized at the sea, while 54 others from the same accidents remained missing and presumed dead. The IOM estimates over 20,000 fatalities in the Mediterranean since 2014 amongst people who tried to cross into Europe illegally. 

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(Image credit: AP/Representative)