It is just the latest deadly incident involving vulnerable people on the move who are often mistreated and trafficked by smuggling gangs that have flourished in Libya since the overthrow of President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The IOM said Libyan authorities rescued two Nigerian women from the shipwreck last Friday; one said her husband had drowned while the other reported that her two babies had died.
Survivors explained that the ship was carrying immigrants and refugees from several African countries. It had left Zawiya around 11pm on Thursday and began taking on water six hours later before capsizing.
It is not yet known where the travelers were headed, but many migrant and refugee boats leaving Libya set sail for the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is about 350 kilometers (220 miles) from Zawiya. UN aid teams have often warned that the open inflatable boats they usually sail in are totally unsuitable for such a trip.
At least 375 people have been reported dead or missing in January alone in the central Mediterranean, according to the IOM’s missing migrants database. The UN agency warned that this is just the latest shipwreck to occur amid severe winter weather, and there are fears there are many more unrecorded tragedies.
Smuggling and trafficking networks continue to profit from desperate people by sending them to sea in unseaworthy vessels, IOM said, as it renewed calls for greater international cooperation and safer, more legal migration routes.
So far this year, 781 migrants have been “intercepted and returned” to Libya, the UN agency said, and 244 were returned just last week. This compares to 27,116 last year, including 1,314 reported deaths or missing persons.
Detained underground
“The IOM does not consider Libya to be a safe port for migrants,” the IOM insisted, after highlighting the dangers that migrants continue to face following the discovery of more mass graves and detention places in the east of the country.
“Investigations indicate that the victims had been held captive and subjected to torture to force their families to pay ransoms,” the IOM said in a statement, following a raid by authorities on an illegal detention site in Ajdabiya.
In Kufra, authorities discovered an underground detention site three meters underground. A total of 221 migrants and refugees were released, including women, children and a one-month-old baby. “Initial information suggests that the migrants had been held for a prolonged period in extremely inhumane conditions,” the IOM said.
To help vulnerable people on the move, IOM supports voluntary flights home for foreign nationals. This includes one last week for Pakistani nationals who had arrived in Tripoli. In late January, the agency helped 177 Nigerian migrants return home on another voluntary humanitarian flight.
And in a bid to dismantle trafficking networks and support survivors, the UN agency is working with national and regional authorities to strengthen cross-border cooperation.