A BOAT carrying dozens of Europe-bound migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people — including women and children — dead, the United Nations (UN) migration agency said.
The shipwreck Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, where, according to officials, thousands have died.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, citing survivors of the “dramatic shipwreck.”
“The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
The North African nation has plunged into chaos following a Nato-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
The country is a major launching point for migrants trying to reach the European shores through the deadly central Mediterranean. More than 2,250 people died on this route this year, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesperson.