Four killed after two boats carrying migrants capsize off Libya's coast

"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. 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. Other pictures show the rescued people wrapped in thermal blankets sitting on the floor."

"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. 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's coast."

Two boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off al-Khums, Libya, resulting in at least four deaths and 91 people rescued. The first boat carried 26 Bangladeshis, four of whom died; the second carried 69 people including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, eight of them children. Coastguards and the Al-Khums Port Security Agency participated in the rescue and handed bodies to authorities under public prosecution instructions. Images showed bodies in black plastic bags and survivors receiving first aid and wrapped in thermal blankets. Libya remains a transit route to Europe since 2011, with multiple recent deadly incidents at sea.

Read at www.aljazeera.com