Libya/Immigration

21 dead and hundreds missing after boats sink off Libya's coast

Article published on the 2009-03-31 Latest update 2009-03-31 14:25 TU

The Italian navy seizing a boat of illegal immigrants 3 August 2008.
(Photo: AFP)

21 illegal immigrants were killed and more than 200 are feared dead after stormy weather sank three boats off the Libyan coast, the International Organisation for Migration says. Hundreds of migrants have died in the past few months attempting to sail from North Africa to Europe.

Officials confirmed that at least 21 people are dead and another 20 have been rescued. The boat was believe to be travelling to Lampedusa, a small Italian island in the Mediterranean sea.

"What we're looking at is probably 200 people missing," IMO spokesperson Jean-Philippe Chauzy told RFI.

The boat is believed to have been about 30 nautical miles off the Libyan coast. The sheer distance and lack of rescue equipment, says Chauzy, meant that many of the people had no chance to swim to shore.

"People didn't have a chance because the boats are usually stripped of life-jackets, of buoys, of dinghys because the smugglers [...] cram as many people as they can over-deck and under-deck so there were obviously no emergency rescue materials."

Chauzy says Lampedusa was the likely destination because ships that sail from Libya almost exclusively head to the Italian island.

"Last year we had 37,000 people arriving in Lampedusa and the trend has continued throughout the winter," he says. "And most of those people left from the Libyan coast."

Libya's 1,700km of coastline have made it a popular hub for immigrants from eastern and southern Africa heading for Europe.

On Monday, an Italian tanker rescued another troubled vessel carrying 350 illegal immigrants.