UN says 42 feared dead as migrant boat capsizes off Libya

Boat was carrying 49 people and seven were rescued

African migrants rescued from a ship off the coast of Zuwara, west of the Libyan capital Tripoli, sit at the dock at the capital's naval base on June 18, 2018. AFP

Forty-two people are missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat carrying 49 migrants and refugees capsized off Libya, the UN said on Wednesday.

The vessel departed from Zuwara, west of Tripoli, on November 3 at around 3am. Six hours later, high waves caused the engine to fail, capsizing the boat near Al Buri Oil Field and throwing all passengers overboard, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

Seven men - four from Sudan, two from Nigeria, and one from Cameroon – were rescued after drifting at sea for six days, the IOM said.

"Tragically, 42 individuals remain missing and are presumed dead, including 29 from Sudan, eight from Somalia, three from Cameroon, and two from Nigeria," the agency said.

IOM’s team provided the survivors with emergency medical care, water, and food upon arrival at the disembarkation point in co-ordination with relevant authorities, it added.

According to the latest data from IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, the death toll in the Central Mediterranean has already surpassed 1,000 this year.

The latest deaths reinforce the urgent need for strengthened regional co-operation, expanded safe and regular migration pathways, and more effective search and rescue operations to prevent further loss of life, IOM said.

Since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe, trying to escape conflict and poverty.

But the central Mediterranean is one of the world's most dangerous maritime migration routes.

In October, Libyan authorities said the bodies of 61 migrants were recovered from Libya's west coast over a period of two weeks.

In September, IOM said at least 50 people died after a vessel carrying 75 Sudanese refugees caught fire off Libya's coast.