The Libyan coastguard rescued 77 people early on Friday drifting aboard an inflated boat trying to reach the shores of Europe, a Libyan naval spokesman said. Col.
Qasem Ayoub said the vessel was detected shortly after dawn, about 12 miles north of Tripoli, where migrants from Bangladesh, Morocco and various sub-Saharan countries were traveling.
The migrants, who included four women and one child, were transferred to a refinery in al-Zawiya where they received first aid and then taken to a shelter. Many of them had severe sunburn, abrasions from sea water and symptoms of dehydration, the officer said, noting that when found, the boat had begun to sink, and the migrants said they had been lost at sea for two days.
The beaches stretching between Tripoli and the Tunisian border have become in recent years the center for human trafficking gangs, who charge about 1,500 euros ($1,683) for a trip leading, in many cases, to death.
The flow of illegal immigration, which last year claimed the lives of over 5,000 migrants who drowned at sea, has multiplied in the last weeks with the arrival of spring and better weather.
According to data from the International Organization for Migration, 1,332 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean so far this year while trying to cross to Europe.
SOURCE: Latin American Herald Tribune
