Refugee Boat Found With 22 Dead Bodies Off Libya Coast

Tripoli: The bodies of 21 women and one man have been found “in a pool of fuel” at the bottom of a rubber dinghy adrift near the Libyan coast, just hours after they had set sail for Italy, according to the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

                           

An MSF ship patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea came to the rescue of two dinghies that were sailing close together and managed to pull 209 people, including 50 children, to safety on Wednesday. However, 22 people were found dead at the bottom of the first dinghy.

“When our team approached the first dinghy, they saw dead bodies lying at the bottom of the boat in a pool of fuel” said Jens Pagotto, MSF head of mission for search and rescue operations.

The survivors, most of them from West African countries such as Nigeria and Guinea, were being brought to Sicily, along with the dead, and were due to reach the port of Trapani on Friday.

Italian authorities have reported a jump in the number of refugees and migrants who have left Libya this week on overcrowded boats in search of a better life in Europe, as people smugglers take advantage of calm seas and hot summer weather.

More than 2,500 people were rescued on Tuesday and one body was recovered, Italy’s coast guard said. Almost 600 people were saved on Wednesday.

Fleeing war and economic desperation, more than a million refugees and migrants reached European shores by boat in 2015, according to the UNHCR. 

Following an agreement in March between the EU and Turkey, arrivals to Greece decreased drastically — more than 241,000 have made the dangerous journey so far this year.