Over 100 migrants rescued off Libya

Geneva, June 6 (IANS/AKI) Libyan coastguard picked up 110 African migrants, including 40 women and three children, the United Nations migration agency said on Tuesday.

The migrants were plucked from the sea off the coastal city of Zliten in northeast Libya, the International Organisation for Migration said.

Following the rescue mission, the migrants were taken to Al Khums detention centre, IOM said.

A total of 8,293 migrants have been rescued off Libya's coast this year as of June 4, and 236 corpses have been recovered, IOM said.

The great majority (85 per cent) of the 71,418 migrants who reached Europe this year till June 4 arrived in Italy, amid a surge in crossings via the perilous Central Mediterranean route from Libya, according to IOM.

Although migrants deaths in the Mediterranean this year till June 4 stood at 1,650 - 862 fewer than in 2016 - the proportion of people who perished almost doubled from last year, when 2,512 died and 206,790 reached Europe.

The Libyan coastguard, which has received offshore training from European nations including Britain, has been accused of shooting and beating refugees and causing hundreds to drown, and of attacking international rescue ships.

Rights groups have also highlighted the plight of migrants held in detention centres in chaos-wracked Libya, which lacks an asylum system, where the rule of law is absent and allegations of torture, rape and killings are rife.

The European Union has pledged tens of millions of euros for authorities in Libya in a push to stop the Mediterranean crossings, a policy that could fuel horrific abuse of migrants, US-based Refugees International warned last week in a report.

--IANS/AKI

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