20 dead, dozens missing in shipwreck off Libya via @iKanzee_RR

TRIPOLI (AFP) – More than 20 migrants have
died and dozens are missing after their
makeshift boat sank off the Libyan coast, the
navy said late Tuesday.
“A navy patrol on Monday rescued 22
clandestine migrants who were clinging to
debris from their boat,” spokesman Colonel
Ayoub Kassem told AFP, adding that more
than 20 bodies were plucked from the water.
Survivors said some 150 people had been
aboard the vessel, which sank some 100
kilometres (60 miles) east of the Libyan
capital Tripoli.
Search operations for possible other survivors
continued into Wednesday.
The migrants from south of the Sahara desert
had sought to reach the Italian coast or
nearby Malta after crossing restive and
lawless Libya.
Hundreds of would-be immigrants die in the
process every year, while others are detained
by Italian police once they reach the southern
EU member’s territorial waters or the islands
of Sicily or Lampedusa.
This year nearly 80,000 migrants have landed
in Italy so far, many more than the 2011
record of a total of 63,000, according to
authorities in Rome.