Nine migrant deaths off Tripoli have now been confirmed by the Libyan Red Crescent. A boat carrying irregular migrants capsized near the coastal suburb of Tajoura. The organisation’s Tripoli branch said its recovery team retrieved the bodies over two days. They were found on beaches roughly 22 kilometres east of the Libyan capital.
Local authorities in Tajoura estimate that the vessel had been carrying about 19 people when it went down. Muad Zurgani, media officer for the Tripoli Red Crescent, told Reuters by phone that further bodies are likely to wash ashore. Search efforts continue along the coastline.
The Red Crescent said recovery operations remain under way in coordination with relevant authorities. It described field conditions as difficult. Continuous effort and an urgent humanitarian response are still required, the organisation said, as the count of migrant deaths off Tripoli climbs.
The toll has risen steadily since the alarm was first raised. Xinhua reported on Sunday that only two bodies had been retrieved at that point. The Tripoli branch said its team moved to the scene after a report from the local operations centre. Work began once prosecutors granted authorisation.
Images shared by the Red Crescent showed volunteers working alongside security personnel. Bodies wrapped in white plastic sheeting were carried from the shoreline. The scenes are a familiar and painful routine for rescue teams along this stretch of coast, where migrant deaths off Tripoli are recorded with grim regularity.
This latest tragedy comes as the wider central Mediterranean crossing continues to claim lives. Elsewhere off Libya on Monday, the Italian charity ship EMERGENCY rescued fifty people from a separate wooden boat in international waters. Seven others aboard that vessel were found dead.
Libya has remained a principal departure point for migrants attempting the sea crossing to Europe since NATO invasion of Libya in 2011 that led to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Smugglers routinely pack migrants, many fleeing conflict or poverty across sub-Saharan Africa, into overcrowded and poorly built boats bound for European shores. Cases such as this week’s migrant deaths off Tripoli illustrate how little has changed along the route in the years since.
Tajoura in particular has featured repeatedly in past tragedies along this route. Earlier incidents there have involved boats carrying far larger numbers of passengers. Aid workers say identification of victims often takes weeks, since many bodies are recovered without documentation.
For families along the migration route, migrant deaths off Tripoli have become a grim marker of the risks people take in search of safety abroad. The Red Crescent has not yet confirmed the nationalities of those recovered this week. Officials say identification work is ongoing.
Search and recovery operations along the Tajoura shoreline are expected to continue in the coming days. Authorities are working to establish the full scale of the tragedy and to account for those still missing.
