About 100 refugees feared to drowned off in Libyan coast

Tripoli, Jan 10: Between 90 and 100 refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their rubber dinghy sank off the coast of Libya.

The air filled boat was carrying more than 100 people when it went down off the eastern city of Khoms on Tuesday, said Ayub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard.

Rescuers found just 17 survivors clinging on to the boat’s wreckage, Qasim said.

According to media reports, the country’s coastguard also rescued more than 279 refugees from two boats off the western city of Zawiya.

According to an Aljazeera report, the survivors included 19 women and 17 children and most of them on the boats came from African countries.

United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) describes the Mediterranean Sea as the world’s deadliest border. According to the report of the agency, on last year more than 3,116 people died in its waters while trying to cross from North Africa to Europe by sea.

Libya, which was plunged into chaos since 2011 ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, has become the most common point of departure for refugees traveling by sea to Europe.