Libya’s coast guard intercepts 64 Europe-bound migrants, days after a deadly shipwreck

CAIRO -- Libya’s coast guard intercepted dozens of Europe-bound migrants on a boat and returned them to shore, authorities said Saturday, a few days after a shipwreck off the North African country left nearly two dozen dead or missing.

The boat was carrying 64 migrants and was intercepted Friday off the northwestern town of Sirte, according to the town's coast guard unit. It posted images on Facebook showing dozens of migrants, including at least one woman and a child, upon their return. The coast guard also set the migrant boat on fire, a procedure aimed at preventing its reuse by traffickers.

On Wednesday, a boat carrying 32 migrants from Egypt and Syria capsized off Libya’s eastern town of Tobruk, leaving 22 missing and presumed dead. The Libyan coast guard said it rescued nine people and recovered one body.

Libya, which has borders with six nations and a longshore on the Mediterranean, plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Since then, the oil-rich country has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East and seeking better lives in Europe.

Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the disorder in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders. The migrants are crowded onto ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages to Europe.

According to the International Organization for Migration's missing migrants project, at least 434 were reported dead and 611 missing off Libya between January and August this year while more than 14,100 migrants were intercepted and brought back to shore.

The intercepted migrants are held in government-run detention centers rife with abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture — practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to U.N.-commissioned investigators. The abuse often accompanies attempts to extort money from the families of the imprisoned migrants before releasing them or allowing them to leave Libya on traffickers’ boats to Europe.

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