At least 15 migrant bodies wash ashore in eastern Libya

The bodies of at least 15 migrants including a girl have washed ashore along Libya’s ​eastern Mediterranean coast over the past week ‌after their boat was believed to have capsized, security, navy and medical sources told Reuters on Saturday.

The vessel was carrying ​around 61 people, according to 10 survivors, ​a navy source said.

The bodies were recovered from ⁠several places along the coastline of Tobruk, a ​city near the Egyptian border, the sources added. Two ​security officials said the remains were badly decomposed and warned that more bodies could still be found.

Images posted on Facebook ​by the Tobruk Red Crescent showed volunteers in ​white hazmat suits recovering bodies from rocky shorelines and placing them ‌into ⁠white plastic bags.

Since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty ​to Europe ​via dangerous ⁠routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean.

The oil-dependent Libyan economy is also ​a draw for impoverished migrants seeking work.

Separately, ​the ⁠Emergency Medicine and Support Centre in Khumas city, which operates under the health ministry in the capital Tripoli, ⁠said ​its medics treated 13 migrants after ​their boat capsized off the coast.

-Reuters