Tripoli/Berlin: They are afraid that at least 60 migrants will die after a pair of shipwrecks off the coast of Libya during the past week, according to the International Organization for Migration (IIM).
The first ship fell on June 12 near a Libyan port in Tripoli, with 21 people, including women and children, they reported missing and only five survivors found, the IOM said in a statement on Tuesday.
Those lost in the sea included erythre, Pakistani, Egyptian and Sudanese nationals. The second accident took place about 35 kilometers from the port city of Tobruk, and the only survivor informed 39 people lost in the sea, according to the UN body.
“With feared dozens of dead and whole families in anguish, IOM is once again urging the international community to expand search and rescue operations and guarantee safe and predictable landing for survivors,” said Othman Belbeisi, regional director of the IOM for the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the statement, at least 743 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. The deadly route, he said, is “marked by increasingly dangerous smuggling practices, limited rescue capacity and growing restrictions on humanitarian operations.”
As of June 15, according to the UN high commissioner for refugees, migrants on the Italian coast increased 15 percent year after year, and most originated in Libya.
Mediterranean rescue
Maritime rescue organizations said Wednesday that they had extracted more than 175,000 people from the Mediterranean in the last 10 years, since the waves of migrants sought to use the dangerous sea route to reach Europe. The group of 21 NGOs active in the region estimated that at least 28,932 people had died while trying to cross the sea since 2015.
Most had died in the Central Mediterranean, Aguas between Libya, Tunisia, Italy and Malta, said Mirka Schaefer of German humanity are at a press conference in Berlin. In that area, the equivalent of five adults and a child lost his life every day during the last decade, he said. It is likely that the number of unregistered cases was “significantly higher,” he added.
Of the 21 organizations currently dedicated to the maritime rescue in the region, 10 of them are based in Germany. Among them, the groups operate 15 ships, four sailing ships and four airplanes. The organizations have frequently faced with the authorities about their rescue operations, which launched as the migration crisis in Europe broke out in 2015, when hundreds of thousands went to the continent, mainly from the Middle East.
In Italy, the current government has promised to end the crosses and attacked NGOs to create an “extraction factor” that foster the outputs, something that migration observers say it is not proven. The Giorgia Meloni right government has approved laws that require rescue ships to return to a designated port, according to a measure, NGOs is contrary to maritime law.
“The pressure on us is growing,” said Schaefer, criticizing the lack of support from the German government.
Posted in Dawn, June 19, 2025
