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At least four people have been killed when two boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off Libya\u2019s coast, according to the Libyan Red Crescent.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Saturday, the organisation said the incident occurred off the coastal city of al-Khums on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
It said the first boat was carrying 26 people from Bangladesh, four of whom died.<\/p>\n
The second boat carried 69 people, including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, the Red Crescent added, without specifying their fate. Eight of them were children, it said.<\/p>\n
Al-Khums is a coastal city, some 118km (73 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli.<\/p>\n
Libya has become a transit route for migrants and asylum seekers fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe since the 2011 fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi during a NATO-backed uprising.<\/p>\n
Pictures released by the Libyan Red Crescent showed a line of bodies in black plastic bags laid out on the floor, while the volunteers are seen providing first aid to the survivors.<\/p>\n
Other pictures show the rescued people wrapped in thermal blankets sitting on the floor.<\/p>\n
The statement added that coastguards and Al-Khums Port Security Agency participated in the rescue operation. Adding that the bodies were handed over to the relevant authorities based on instructions by the city\u2019s public prosecution.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that at least 42 migrants went missing and were presumed dead after a rubber boat sank near the Al Buri oilfield, an offshore facility north-northwest of the Libyan coast.<\/p>\n
In mid-October, a group of 61 bodies of migrants were recovered on the coast west of Tripoli. In September, IOM said at least 50 people had died after a vessel carrying 75 Sudanese refugees caught fire off Libya\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n
Several states, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway and Sierra Leone, urged Libya last week at a United Nations meeting in Geneva to close detention centres where rights groups say migrants and refugees have been tortured, abused and sometimes killed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n