“According to survivors, 22 migrants, all from Mali, died during the journey. The reported causes of death are drowning and dehydration. Among the dead are three children,” the spokeswoman for the agency said on Tuesday. International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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They were all from Mali. Twenty-two exiles including three children died in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, the UN announced on Tuesday 5 July.
After nine days at sea in a dinghy, 61 survivors, mostly from Mali, were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard and brought ashore, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Some of them are in very poor health and have been hospitalized.
“According to survivors, 22 migrants, all from Mali, died during the journey. The reported causes of death are drowning and dehydration. Among the dead are three children”IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said.
The chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011 made Libya a preferred route for tens of thousands of exiles from sub-Saharan Africa, Arab countries and South Asia. They seek to reach Europe via the Italian coasts, about 300 km from the Libyan coast.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 6,340 migrants have been intercepted and brought back to Libya, according to an IOM report in May. At least 129 people have died attempting the crossing and 459 are missing and presumed dead, according to the organization. Several thousand migrants also find themselves stranded in Libya, often in deplorable conditions.