 "The first boat was carrying 26 migrants from Bangladesh. Photo: Libyan Red Crescent/Facebook")
At least four people were killed when two boats carrying 95 irregular migrants capsized off the coastal city of Al Khums on Thursday, according to the Libyan Red Crescent on Saturday.
The first vessel was transporting 26 migrants from Bangladesh, four of whom died, the organisation reported in a statement on its verified Facebook page. A second vessel was carrying 69 migrants, including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, though the Red Crescent did not detail their condition.
Khums lies around 118 km east of Tripoli.
On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration confirmed that at least 42 migrants were missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat sank near the Al Buri oilfield, an offshore site north-northwest of the Libyan coast.
Images show aftermath and rescue efforts
Libya has become a key transit route for migrants escaping conflict and poverty in attempts to reach Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of former leader Muammar Gaddafi during a NATO-backed uprising.
Photographs released by the Khums Red Crescent depict bodies in black plastic bags laid out on the floor, while volunteers provide first aid to survivors. Other images show rescued migrants wrapped in thermal blankets as they sit on the ground.
The Red Crescent stated that the Coast Guards and the Khums Port Security Agency took part in the rescue operation, adding that the bodies were transferred to the relevant authorities following instructions from the city’s public prosecution.
In mid-October, 61 bodies of migrants were recovered on the coast west of Tripoli. In September, the IOM reported that at least 50 people died after a vessel carrying 75 Sudanese refugees caught fire off Libya’s coast.
Last week, several states, including Britain, Spain, Norway, and Sierra Leone, urged Libya at a U.N. meeting in Geneva to close detention centers where rights groups allege that migrants and refugees have been tortured, abused and in some cases killed.