As many as 150 refugees are believed dead after their wooden boat that had been bound for Europe capsized off Libya's coast. According to the United Nations, it's the in Mediterranean.
On Wednesday night, the boat departed from Al Khoms, Libya, about 75 miles east of the capital, Tripoli. It sank on Thursday, five miles from Libya's coast.
Aid organizations believe 250-300 people may have been on the boat. The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration says it has confirmed 30 deaths, and that up to 120 more people may have drowned.
I am horrified by reports that about 150 people died in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya.
— Ant贸nio Guterres (@antonioguterres)
We need safe, legal routes for migrants and refugees.
Every migrant searching for a better life deserves safety and dignity.
The boat's engine reportedly failed, and then it capsized, the U.N. says. Local fishermen began rescue efforts; they were later assisted by the Libyan Coast Guard.
"It was one large wooden boat, a vessel unseaworthy for the job at hand," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Spokesperson Charlie Yaxley told NPR.
Around 145 people have been rescued; many of them have an Eritrean or Sudanese background, according to the IOM. The survivors also include one Palestinian and one Bangladeshi refugee.
The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred. Restoring rescue at sea, ending refugee+migrant detention in Libya, increasing safe pathways out of Libya must happen NOW, before it is too late for many more desperate people.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi)
It's the latest migrant tragedy to happen in the Mediterranean in 2019.
"This route has been extremely deadly all year," IOM Spokesperson Joel Millman told NPR.
In May, 65 migrants leaving from Libya died after near Tunisia.
"The journeys are becoming increasingly dangerous," Yaxley says. "For 2019, one person has died on the route from Libya to Europe for every six that have reached European shores. Our death rate is rising alarmingly."
Though the number of refugees crossing the Mediterranean has declined this year, the on the Mediterranean so far in 2019.
The decrease in migrants crossing the Mediterranean is primarily due to new policies from Italy's hard-right, anti-immigration government. With the EU's backing, to curtail migrants leaving from Libya by turning back boats and returning migrants to detention centers.
And last month, Interior Minister that forbids NGO migrant ships from entering Italy's ports.
The U.N. is urging all countries involved to to detention centers, which have been found to expose migrants to .
Earlier this month, an near Tripoli killed over 50 people.
Humanitarian agencies reported that 84 survivors of this week's shipwreck were transferred to the Tajoura facility. The IOM's Libya Branch, however, says the and are now being "released gradually."
馃毃Update: The 84 migrants were not accepted at Tajoura detention centre and remained last night at the disembarkation point in Tripoli. They are now being released gradually into the city.
— IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya)
Josh Axelrod is the NPR Digital Content intern.
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