Migrant boat sinks off Libya killing 61

Thousand die each year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Reuters

Sixty-one migrants, including women and children, were killed following a “tragic” shipwreck off Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on social media platform X on Saturday.

The group, quoting survivors, said the boat was carrying about 86 people when it departed the Libyan city of Zwara.

The “large number of migrants” are believed to have been killed because of high waves which swamped their vessel after it left from Zawada, on Libya's north-west coast, the IOM's Libya office said.

Libya and Tunisia are principal departure points for migrants risking dangerous sea voyages in hopes of reaching Europe, via Italy.

In the latest incident most of the victims, including women and children, were from Nigeria, Gambia and other African countries. The IOM said that 25 people were rescued and transferred to a Libyan detention centre.

An IOM team “provided medical support” and the survivors are all in good condition.

Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM official, wrote on X, that more than 2,250 people died this year on the central Mediterranean migrant route, a “dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea”.

The Adriana, a fishing boat loaded with 750 people en route from Libya to Italy, sank in international waters off south-west Greece on June 14.

More than 153,000 migrants arrived in Italy this year from Tunisia and Libya, according to the UN refugee agency.

Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni won elections last year after vowing to stop illegal migration.