The incident comes just days after a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Libya and 22 out of 32 people on board went missing, presumed drowned.
Libya’s coast guard intercepted 64 migrants bound migrants for Europe on a boat off the north-western town of Sirte and returned them to shore, Italian authorities said Saturday.
Sirte’s coast guard unit posted images on Facebook showing dozens of migrants including women and children.
It added that it had set the boat on fire after the migrants had disembarked, in order to prevent it from being reused by traffickers.
The incident comes just days after a boat carrying 32 migrants from Egypt and Syria capsized off Libya’s eastern town of Tobruk, with 22 missing, who are presumed to have drowned. The Libyan coast guard reported it had recovered one body and rescued nine.
Nicola Dell’Arciprete, coordinator of the UNICEF Response in Italy told local media that the wooden boat had “capsized several times, leaving people clinging to the side of the vessel while their families drowned around them.”
Libya, which borders six nations and has a coastline in the Mediterranean, has emerged as a dominant transit point for migrants, many of whom are refugees are fleeing war and persecution in Africa and the Middle East.
It’s been plunged into an era of chaos since the 2011 NATO -backed uprising that led to the ouster and killing of Moammar Gaddafi. Since then, migrants who wait there for a boat to make the perilous crossing, are vulnerable to abuse.
Some find themselves locked up in prison, or forced to pay outrageous sums to unscrupulous traffickers to try to cross the Mediterranean.
Arrivals have halved in Italy compared to last year
Italy’s Ministry of the Interior recorded 43,163 arrivals up to September this year, with 8,526 of them in August.
The numbers represent a significant drop from 2023, when over 20,000 were registered as arriving in Italy in August alone.
Fewer migrants may be making the voyage across the Mediterranean but the danger remains just as high.
According to the International Organisation for Migration’s missing migrants project, at least 434 were reported dead and 611 missing off Libya between January and August this year.
Those who are intercepted are often held in government-run detention centres that are rife with abuses, including forced labour, beatings, rapes and torture — practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to UN-commissioned investigators.
