{"id":296154,"date":"2017-02-21T15:16:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T15:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=296154"},"modified":"2017-02-21T15:16:41","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T15:16:41","slug":"dozens-of-migrants-drown-off-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=296154","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of migrants drown off Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is believed they were trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Migrant deaths have risen to record levels along this smuggling route in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>A torn rubber boat was found nearby, and it is feared more bodies may surface as such vessels usually carry up to 120 people.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those who died are believed to be children.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent &#8211; the country&#8217;s Red Cross &#8211; said the bodies were retrieved by its workers.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed al-Misrati said local authorities would take the bodies to a cemetery for unidentified people in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Crescent posted photographs on its Twitter account showing dozens of body bags along the shore.<\/p>\n<p>The UN&#8217;s migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration, said the boat that sank had left Libya on Saturday with 110 people on board.<\/p>\n<p>At least 5,000 people drowned last year while trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\">\n<figure style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/E660\/production\/_94767985_redcrescent.jpg\" alt=\"The bodies of 74 migrants and refugees have washed ashore in the western Libyan city of Zawiya, Libya's Red Crescent has said.\" width=\"690\" height=\"388\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Red Crescent said the dead would be buried in a cemetery for unidentified people in Tripoli, Libya<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Libyan coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim said over 500 migrants were rescued at sea on Friday and Saturday near the city of Sabratha, to the west of Zawiya.<\/p>\n<p>The boats were between five and seven miles (8-11km) from the coast of Libya.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gassim said the smugglers were now using larger rubber boats in order to pack more migrants in, some carrying up to 180 people.<\/p>\n<p>The boats are weak, and loading them so heavily dramatically raises the risk of sinking.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are seeing the new boats, which are not equipped with anything, but they carry more people,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is going to be even more disastrous to the migrants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is believed they were trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. Migrant deaths have risen to record levels along this smuggling route in recent months. A torn rubber boat was found nearby, and it is feared more bodies may surface as such vessels usually carry up to 120 people. Some of those who died [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3,25],"class_list":["post-296154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-ghana-news","tag-libya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}