The Libyan Red Crescent reported that bodies of at least 17 people have washed ashore in western Libya. The bodies were likely to be of Europe-bound migrants, it said.
The bodies were discovered on Tuesday, near Zawiya, a town in Western Libya. The authorities in town took over the bodies for burial, the Red Crescent branch in Zawiya said.
More than 1,100 migrants were presumed or reported dead in numerous boat accidents and shipwrecks near Libya this year, the United Nations migration agency said. Those migrants likely drowned in one of the boat mishaps off Libya, it added.
Images of Red Crescent workers carrying white body bags with dead bodies inside, near the Mediterranean Sea were circulated in social media platforms on Tuesday. Libya, the North African nation had been listed as a popular, but an extremely dangerous route to Europe for people who are fleeing from poverty and wars in African and Middle East continents since the death of long time Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Libya is rich in oil resources and is governed by local militant groups, many of which profit from trafficking and smuggling. Inside the official detention centers of these militias, migrants who travel across Libya have been raped, tortured and subjected to forced labour by the traffickers, the Rights groups working in Libya said.
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