(Tripoli) The lifeless bodies of 28 migrants were discovered Saturday evening on the Libyan west coast after the sinking of their boat, we learned Sunday from a security source.
“Red Crescent teams recovered 28 bodies of dead migrants and found three survivors at two separate locations on the beaches of Al-Allous, 90 kilometers from the capital Tripoli,” an official told AFP. local security.
“The state of the bodies in advanced decomposition indicates that the sinking occurred a few days ago,” he added.
Images circulated by the local press show the bodies lined up on the shore and then placed in body bags.
This tragedy comes a few days after the news of the death of 160 migrants in a week after the sinking of their boats off the west coast of Libya, bringing to 1,500 the number of deaths on this route since the beginning of the year , according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
More than 30,000 migrants have been rescued or intercepted since the start of this year off the Libyan coast, according to the IOM.
The North African country is an important crossing point for tens of thousands of migrants each year seeking to reach Europe via the Italian coasts, some 300 km away.
Mostly from countries of Saharan Africa, these candidates for exile are the prey of traffickers, when they do not die trying to cross.
Plunged into a major political crisis after the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has faced multiple criticisms for several months for the mistreatment inflicted on migrants.