TRIPOLI: Libyan coast guards said on Monday they had recovered the bodies of five migrants and picked 191 survivors off the coast west of the capital Tripoli.
Libya’s western coast is the main departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by the sea, though the number of crossings has dropped sharply since last July.
The five dead migrants were brought back to port in Tripoli on Monday along with 115 survivors from various sub-Saharan African and Arab countries, coast guard officials said.
Their boat was intercepted off Mellitah on Sunday after being damaged by rough seas, according to Ayoub Qassem, a coast guard spokesman.
Another group of 76 migrants was intercepted on Sunday off Zawiya, just west of Tripoli.
Since last summer, smuggling networks inside Libya have been disrupted under Italian pressure and Libya’s EU-backed coast guard has stepped up interceptions, returning more than 7,000 migrants to Libya so far this year.
Since January, some 10,760 migrants have crossed from Libya to Italy, more than 80 percent less than during the same period last year, according to statistics from Italy’s interior ministry.
Last week, crossings in the central Mediterranean were thrown into further uncertainty when Italy’s new government closed its ports to a rescue ship operated by humanitarian organizations that was loaded with more than 600 migrants.
It eventually docked in Spain.
Libya’s coast guard recovers five bodies from migrant boat
Libya’s coast guard recovers five bodies from migrant boat
- Since January, some 10,760 migrants have crossed from Libya to Italy, more than 80 percent less than during the same period last year
- Since last summer, smuggling networks inside Libya have been disrupted under Italian pressure
Red Cross transfers 8 Palestinians from Israeli detention to Gaza
- They were taken across the Karm Abu Salem border crossing to Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, where they were reunited with their families
LONDON: The International Committee of the Red Cross transferred eight Palestinians from Israeli detention to the Gaza Strip on Monday.
The organization took them across the Karm Abu Salem border crossing to Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah and helped reunite them with their families.
The Red Cross has been unable to visit Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centers since October 2023, as a result of which the fate and location of many detainees from Gaza were unknown, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
The Red Cross said that according to the principles of international humanitarian law, detainees must be treated humanely, held in proper conditions and allowed to have contact with their families.
Israel is holding about 9,245 Palestinian prisoners in jails, including 358 held without charge or trial under administrative detention, according to Jerusalem-based rights group HaMoked.
