Another boat tragedy leaves over 90 refugees missing off Libya

Nearly 100 refugees are feared dead after their unseaworthy vessel sustained damage and sank following departure from the Libyan coast.

A spokesman for the Libyan navy said on Thursday that a total of 126 refugees were aboard the ill-fated rubber boat.

“They were on an inflatable dinghy, which tore and filled up with water,” added General Ayoub Qassem.

He further said the coast guard rescued 29 survivors, adding that most of those rescued were African nationals.

Qassem quoted a survivor as telling his rescuers that the boat had set off with 126 migrants on boat from Garabulli, 70 kilometers east of Tripoli, and went down battered by high waves.

The coast guard reportedly received an SOS signal at around 15:00 local time.

Qassem added that three women and a child were among the 97 missing.

The United Nations says the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe has claimed more than 3,800 lives so far this year.

On Wednesday, French aid group, Doctors without Borders (MSF), said it had found the bodies of 29 asylum-seekers who perished in a pool of fuel and seawater on a crowded dinghy off Libya, probably from suffocation, skin burns or drowning.

In another development on Thursday, the EU said it had begun training the Libyan coast guard how to curb the influx of asylum seekers.

“Today we are starting the training of the Libyan coast guard in Operation Sophia which is a very important step,” EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, said as she arrived for a meeting with NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

SS