Boat carrying 600 migrants capsizes off Libya

2011-05-08 03:21:46 GMT+7 (ICT)

TRIPOLI (BNO NEWS) -- Dozens of immigrants are feared dead after an overcrowded boat carrying about 600 migrants heading for Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, ANSA news agency reported Saturday.

The boat departed early Friday and it wrecked soon after, a few meters away from the coast. Sixteen bodies have been recovered so far, but the death toll is expected to be higher. Some of the migrants were able to swim ashore to safety.

On Friday, Spanish maritime rescue services were looking for 22 would-be immigrants originally from North Africa after their boat capsized off the southern coast of the country. The missing included 19 men, one woman and two babies, while 29 had been rescued.

Last month, a boat carrying 300 migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa and only about 50 people were rescued. It had earlier left the Libyan coast with migrants and asylum seekers from Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-05-08

Gaddaffi's revenge..............