A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe has capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, the UN’s migration agency has said.
In a post on X, the International Organisation for Migration said that the boat left the city of Zuwara with around 86 people on board on Wednesday night.
Citing survivors, it said high waves swamped the vessel and capsized it, causing 61 migrants to drown.
The European Union’s border agency, Frontex, said in a statement on Sunday that its plane had located the partially deflated rubber boat in Libya’s search and rescue zone.
“The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world's most dangerous migration routes,” the IOM said.
Deadly incidents this year included one in June, when a fishing boat packed with hundreds of migrants sank off Greece after departing from the Libyan city of Tobruk.
The voyage, which was supposed to end in Italy, resulted in 78 recorded deaths with the fate of 518 others unknown, according to an IOM report.
Drowning was the main cause of death on migration routes globally in the first half of 2023, with 2,200 recorded fatalities in the period, the report said.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
However, the country has plunged into chaos following a Nato-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders, which it shares with six nations.
The European Union and Tunisia signed a "strategic partnership" deal in July that includes combating human traffickers and tightening sea borders during a sharp increase in boats leaving the North African nation for Europe.
Britain and Italy announced plans on Saturday to jointly finance the journey home for migrants stranded in Tunisia, according to statements from both countries, but did not say how much would money was being provided.
