Migrant Boat Capsizes off Libya, More than 100 Feared Dead

Libyan military and fishing vessels have rescued at least 134 people after a wooden boat that was apparently ferrying African migrants to Europe overturned of Libya’s coast on Thursday. About 115 others were declared missing and presumed dead. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, called it the “worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year” in a tweet. This brings to over 600 the number of migrants killed trying to cross the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year. Earlier this week, Sam Turner, the head of Libya and search and rescue operations for Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders), told The Media Line ^[1] that the group, in conjunction with the NGO SOS Mediterranean, was resuming efforts with a private vessel to rescue migrants who run into trouble while making the perilous crossing. He said that previous efforts ceased when European governments, unhappy about the flow of migrants, made it difficult for MSF to operate its rescue vessel, but that the group was “committed to getting back to sea as we’ve watched countless incidents where people have been suffering and dying in the central Mediterranean.”