Bodies of 11 irregular migrants recovered on beaches of Tripoli: Red Crescent

Rescue workers of the Libyan Red Crescent have recovered 11 irregular migrants’ bodies that washed ashore on the beaches of Tripoli last Wednesday.

“The rescue teams were sent on Tuesday to several beaches around the capital, in residential areas where people had alerted authorities to the sighting of drowned bodies” said a spokesperson from Red Crescent Libya.

The Libyan Red Crescent also has confirmed in a statement on social media that the bodies were retrieved on ‘HayAl-Andalus’ beach of the capital, and in another area about 8 miles west of the city.

Libya has been mired in chaos from 2011 and the power vacuum has brought a weaker central government. People traffickers and smugglers have taken advantage of the situation to profit from vulnerable migrants.

Libya’s coasts serve as a jumping-off point for those seeking to reach Europe. Unsafe rubber boats and dinghies that transport migrants often capsize off the western coast of Libya.

UNHCR’s latest report revealed that nearly 180,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy from northern Africa in 2016 and more than 5,000 died trying to reach Europe on the same route. The UN says that the number of deaths in 2016 was at least one-third higher than in any other year.