Libya: 41 bodies of migrants recovered on a beach near Tripoli

Bodies of 41 drowned migrants have been found on a beach in Sabratha in western Libya on Saturday.

“A group of volunteers on Saturday recovered the bodies of 41 migrants who drowned and washed ashore in Sabratha (70 km west of Tripoli),” an official of the press office of the local town council told AFP.

According to him, the team of volunteers have transferred the remains to the forensic center for their samples of DNA, before they are buried.

“We believe that these people drowned five or six days ago,” the official said on condition of anonymity adding that “we usually find one or two but 41 bodies in one day is exceptional.”

The locals authority of Sabrata recently formed a team of volunteers council to recover the bodies of migrants wash up on the beaches. They also asked residents to report the presence of any body on the coasts.

Due to favourable sea conditions, thousands of migrants have tried since March to cross the Mediterranean, risking their lives.

Crowded and dilapidated boats carrying hundreds of migrants, usually from sub-Saharan Africa, have capsized off the Libyan coast and washed hundreds of bodies on the country’s beaches which is only 300 kilometers from the Italian coast.

Since 2014, more than 10,000 migrants have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe by sea, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).