The National Committee for Human Rights in Libya (NCHRL) has hold the Government of National Unity, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, responsible for the death of over 40 migrants, whose bodies were recovered by the Libyan Red Crescent in multiple incidents this week.
The NCHRL said the deaths are the repercussions of the government’s “failure” to establish security across the country’s west coast, which led to the spread of smuggling and human trafficking.
The committee called on the Libyan authorities to “work quickly to develop a comprehensive national strategy” in order to combat smuggling of migrants, human trafficking and organized crime.
It also called for intensifying international and regional efforts at the Mediterranean basin to “strengthen and support maritime search and rescue operations”.
A Red Crescent aid worker in the coastal city of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, said authorities had recovered 46 bodies since a boat sank off Libya’s coast five days ago.
The latest toll follows the recovery of 11 bodies on Monday, which were “handed over to authorities” in Sabratha, the Red Crescent confirmed on Facebook.
Pictures were posted online by the Sabratha Red Crescent agency showing bodies in black bags being placed at the back of pick-up trucks by the aid workers wearing face masks and gloves.
The International Organization for Migration said this month that 441 people had drowned in early 2023 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe, the most deaths over a three-month period recorded in the past six years.