At least 45 migrants and refugees have died this week off Libya in the deadliest shipwreck of the year, the United Nations said in Geneva on Wednesday. The UN refugee agencies (UNHCR) and migration agencies (IOM) said in a joint statement that the 37 survivors rescued by fishermen explained that at least 45 other people had died when the engine of their boat exploded off Zwara, Libya.
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The survivors, mostly from Senegal, Mali, Chad and Ghana, were detained after being disembarked in Libya, the two UN agencies added. This new tragedy brings to at least 302 the number of migrants and refugees who perished on this route of exile, but the true figure of the victims, which is unknown, is certainly much higher, indicated the UNHCR and IOM. .
Since early 2020, 7,000 people have been returned to Libya
"There is an urgent need to improve search and rescue capabilities in order to be able to respond to distress calls," the agencies said, regretting "the absence of a European program in this area". They reiterated their opinion that Libya cannot be considered a safe destination to which migrants can be returned. In this country, they "risk being victims of ongoing conflicts, severe human rights violations and arbitrary detentions", they said.
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They also regretted that the responsibility for the rescues was increasingly left to Libyan ships, adding that since the beginning of the year more than 7,000 people had been returned to Libya. "Any assistance and responsibilities assigned to Libyan search and rescue entities must be conditional on no one being arbitrarily detained, mistreated or subjected to human rights violations after disembarkation," the two agencies said. "Without these guarantees, support would have to be reviewed and search and rescue responsibilities redefined," they say.