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Libya

Aid workers: Bodies of 74 migrants wash ashore in Libya

Jane Onyanga-Omara
USA TODAY

The bodies of 74 migrants washed ashore on the Libyan coast after their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea, aid workers said Tuesday.

Refugees and migrants are seen on deck of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue vessel Golfo Azzurro sailing towards the Italian port of Pozzallo after being rescued off Libyan coast north of Sabratha, Libya on Feb. 19, 2017.

The Libyan Red Crescent said the bodies were recovered in the northwestern coastal city of Zawiya.

Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the U.N. Migration Agency, said their dinghy departed from the western city of Sabratha on Saturday with 110 people aboard.

Sabratha, an important archaeological site and a launch point for migrants trying to reach Europe, was briefly seized by the Islamic State in 2016, according to media reports.

Red Crescent spokesman Mohammed al-Misrati told the Associated Press the bodies were found Monday morning and that he expected more to appear. A torn rubber boat was found nearby, he said.

The IOM said Tuesday that 13,170 migrants arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, and 272 were dead or missing.

More refugees entered Uganda last year than crossed the Mediterranean

U.N.: Migrant deaths in Mediterranean tops record 5,000 this year

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