100 migrants missing after boat sinks off Libya coast

By Walid Abdullah

TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) - More than 100 undocumented migrants remain unaccounted for after their boat sank off the Libyan coast, the Libyan navy announced Thursday.

A naval patrol managed to rescue 30 migrants who had been aboard the doomed vessel, which, survivors said, had sunk off the coast of Libya’s Sidi Said area west of capital Tripoli, navy spokesman Bahar Ayoub Qasim told Anadolu Agency.

Qasim quoted survivors as saying that the boat had taken on water and eventually sank after running out of fuel Friday.

The rescued migrants are of various African nationalities, he said, noting that the navy was still working to recover the bodies of victims.

Since the collapse of central authority in Libya in 2011, the country’s Mediterranean coast has become a hub for human trafficking and illegal migration.

Hundreds of people have died in recent years while attempting to make the perilous crossing from Africa to southern Europe.