By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli and Tunis, 30 May 2017:
The UNHCR claims that gunmen shot and robbed migrants, even taking the outboard motor from their inflatable as more than ten thousand headed last week from Libyan beaches towards Europe. It also reports that at least 160 did not make it.
The victims, including children, drowned or were crushed or suffocated in the overcrowded craft on which they were travelling. The International Organisation for Migration said that some of the rubber craft had deflated and tipped their occupants into the sea.
The Libyan Coastguard found 80 survivors clinging to their almost airless raft with seven bodies floating nearby. AFP also reported that the Tunisian coastguard had picked up a boat whose 126 passengers had been drifting without an engine for two days. On board was the body of a woman.
