The search for refuge in European countries is turning brutal day by day. Bodies of 85 migrants have been found washed upon Libya’s shores, a major departure point for the sea crossing to Europe.
A spokesman from Libya’s Red Crescent said that 85 bodies were detected near Libya’s capital of Tripoli while another 10 bodies were found near the coastal city of Sabartha.
The Libyan coastguard said it had rescued 212 migrants from two overloaded rubber dinghies off the coast.
“We were informed of the presence of two large zodiacs off the coast of Garabulli,” 60 kilometres east of Tripoli, a coastguard officer said.
He said that the 22 women were among the rescued migrants, who were of different nationalities including many Senegalese and Sudanese.
According to Red Crescent spokesman Mohamed Masrati, most of the victims were migrants from other African nations, trying to set off from Libya in order to cross over to European countries.
He further said that for the past five days, volunteers have recovered dozens of bodies of refugees in an advanced stage of decomposition on the beaches near Tripoli.
Similar disasters, with unseaworthy and overloaded boats transporting refugees along the Mediterranean coast sinking or capsizing have become a weekly occurrence. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 2,600 migrants have died in 2015 alone in the Mediterranean, with many drowning off the coast of Libya.
Bodies of asylum seekers have been washing up on the shores in large numbers in Libya, Greece and Turkey in the last few months.
A number of European countries including Hungary have so far closed their borders or suspended crossing points to stop the refugee influx.
European Union leaders have agreed to provide the United Nations High Commission for Refugee Agency and the World Food Program with one billion euro (Rs 7,295 crore) in a bid to address the worsening refugee crisis.
The UN figures indicate that some 500,000 people have entered Europe in 2015.
Image: Refugees and migrants arrive on a overcrowded dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast. Photograph: Dimitris Michalakis/Reuters
