More than 80 migrants have been rescued, but two have died and three are missing after two rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, announced the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The MSF ship Geo Barents picked up more than 60 people late on Saturday from a distressed rubber boat in international waters off the coast of Libya. One body was also found, and one of the boarded migrants died shortly after the rescue.
Another 19 people were rescued from a nearby abandoned Tunisian offshore oil platform, MSF said. The migrants told rescuers that they swam thereafter water started entering the boat they were traveling in.
Three individuals remained on the ship and are now classified as missing, the humanitarian organization added.
Crossings across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Italy or Malta are among the most dangerous migration routes in the world. According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 2.500 migrants died or went missing on these routes last year.
Photo: illustration
E.Dz.
