At least 28 migrants dead off Libya: Coastguard

TIL Desk/World/Italy-Twenty-eight Europe-bound migrants were found dead on a day of frantic rescues off Libya, including at least 22 in an overloaded wooden boat. A photographer, who was able to go aboard the vessel, yesterday said it appeared that many of the dead had suffocated.

He said there were about 1,000 people on three levels. He counted 22 bodies and said there were more dead in the hold. The Italian coastguard — which is coordinating rescue efforts in international waters north of Libya — said 28 bodies had been recovered over the course of 33 operations yesterday, while 4,655 migrants had been rescued.

The photographer was travelling on the Astral, a ship chartered by Spanish NGO ProActiva Open Arms, which rescues migrants at sea. Yesterday, the Italian navy took over helping survivors and retrieving bodies, the photographer said. It was yet another day of drama at sea after more than 6,000 migrants, most of them Africans in packed rubber dinghies, were rescued off Libya on Monday. Nine bodies were found in those operations, including a pregnant woman.