Boat breaks down and remains adrift in the Mediterranean for 8 days; 17 die and 9 disappear

At least 17 migrants have died and nine are missing after their boat broke down and was adrift for eight days in the Mediterranean Sea, the Libyan Red Crescent and Libyan security sources said on Wednesday (29). The Red Crescent said in a statement that volunteers, in cooperation with Libyan National Army naval forces and coast guard, rescued seven survivors during recovery operations in the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk, near the border with Egypt. Libya is a transit route for migrants, many of them from sub-Saharan Africa, who risk their lives to flee to Europe across the desert and sea, hoping to escape conflict and poverty. Security sources said they expected the bodies of the nine missing migrants to reach the coast in the coming days. Videos trending on g1 Photos published online by the Red Crescent showed volunteers placing the bodies in black plastic bags and loading them into the back of pickup trucks. On Tuesday, the country’s attorney general reported that the Tripoli Criminal Court had sentenced four members of a “criminal gang” in Zuwara, western Libya, to up to 22 years in prison for human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and torture. In a separate case, the Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday ordered the arrest of another gang that allegedly sent migrants from Tobruk in a rickety boat that capsized, resulting in the deaths of 38 Sudanese, Egyptian and Ethiopian citizens, according to the attorney general.

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