No fewer than 53 migrants, including two babies, are feared dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the Libyan coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said.
Grassroots Parrot reports that the UN migration agency disclosed in a statement that only two Nigerian women survived the tragedy after they were rescued during a search-and-rescue operation by Libyan authorities.
According to the IOM, the overcrowded boat overturned in the frigid waters of the central Mediterranean Sea, north of the coastal town of Zuwara, over the weekend.
One of the Nigerian survivors reportedly told rescuers that her husband drowned, while the other said both of her babies died in the incident. The women said the vessel had been carrying migrants and refugees from several African countries.
The boat was said to have departed from Zawiya at about 11 p.m. on Thursday. Trouble began roughly six hours later when it started taking on water before eventually capsizing.
Although the intended destination of the passengers remains unclear, many migrant boats leaving Libya attempt the perilous journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa, located about 350 kilometres from Zawiya.
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UN aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the open rubber dinghies often used for such crossings are wholly unfit for the dangerous voyage.
IOM described the disaster as the latest in a series of shipwrecks occurring amid harsh winter conditions, warning that many more tragedies may go unrecorded.
“IOM does not consider Libya to be a safe port for migrants,” the agency stated.
The organization also raised alarm over the continued dangers migrants face in Libya, citing recent discoveries of mass graves and illegal detention centres in the eastern part of the country.
Following a raid on an unlawful detention site in Ajdabiya, IOM said investigations suggested victims had been held captive and tortured to extort ransom payments from their families.
In a separate incident in Kufra, authorities uncovered an underground detention facility three metres below ground level, where 221 migrants and refugees — including women, children, and a one-month-old baby — were freed. Initial findings indicated they had been held for prolonged periods under severely inhumane conditions.
To assist vulnerable migrants, IOM facilitates voluntary humanitarian return flights. In late January, the agency supported the return of 177 Nigerian migrants.
Data from IOM’s Missing Migrants Project shows that at least 375 people were reported dead or missing in the central Mediterranean in January alone. Between January 1 and February 7, no fewer than 781 migrants were intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, including 244 in just the past week.
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Trafficking and smuggling networks have thrived in Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, exploiting desperate migrants by sending them to sea in unsafe vessels, the agency said.
IOM renewed its call for stronger international cooperation and the expansion of safe, legal migration pathways, adding that it continues to work with national and regional authorities to dismantle trafficking networks and support survivors.