Search Continues for 60 Migrants Missing Off Libya Coast

The Libyan coastguard, with the help of a group of fishermen, has continued its search for roughly 60 migrants, who were presumed dead after their boat caught fire off the Libyan coast during an attempted Mediterranean crossing.

Alarm Phone, a volunteer-run Mediterranean rescue hotline, said it had spoken to survivors of the March 18 incident in which the engine of the wooden boat carrying more than 100 people caught fire.

Someone on the boat initially contacted them, and they in turn alerted relevant authorities as well as the rescue vessel, Ocean Viking, and requested an immediate search for the boat in distress.

Ocean Viking started a search operation. Unfortunately, the migrants were at first unable to provide an accurate GPS position.

Libyan authorities told them shortly after that 45 people had been rescued and five bodies retrieved.

However, the charity said witness testimony they gathered suggested about 60 people were missing and presumed dead, AFP reported.

Survivors said that the boat’s passengers included Sudanese, Senegalese, Syrians, Pakistanis, Moroccans and Egyptians.

On March 18, Ocean Viking rescued 10 people, including three children and a baby suffering from dehydration.

Two days later, crew members of the Ocean Viking rescued more than a hundred migrants.

“Ocean Viking rescued around 106 children, women and men from an overcrowded dinghy that had run into trouble in international waters around 34 nautical miles from Libya,” SOS Mediterrannee tweeted.

The rescued migrants included 31 men, eight women and 67 children, of whom 51 were unaccompanied.

Meanwhile, human traffickers in Libya continue to kidnap undocumented migrants.

Brigade 444 said Tuesday that its forces had neutralized criminals in Nessma area, about 200 km from Tripoli.

They freed 85 African abductees and handed them over to the migration agency in Tripoli, it said.