Posted on 08/23/2014 7:59:08 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
A wooden boat carrying up to 200 migrants has sunk just one kilometre (half a mile) off the Libyan coast, the coast guard said on Saturday, and most passengers were feared drowned.
The local coast guard said it had no boats of its own and had to commandeer fishing vessels in a rescue attempt after fishermen raised the alarm on Saturday morning.
Migrants have been streaming out of North Africa in rickety boats in rising numbers for years. Many head for Italy, and so far in 2014, the total number reaching Italian shores has passed 100,000, the Italian government said this week.
Libya is a major departure point for this journey, and human traffickers are exploiting the political chaos and lack of security that has blighted the country since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011.
The small boat crammed with between 150-200 migrants sank late on Friday near Qarabouli, east of Tripoli, local coast guard official Mohammad Abdellatif told Reuters Television.
Local fishermen raised the alarm at dawn on Saturday morning and the coast guard managed to rescue 16 migrants who were still alive in the water, surrounded by bodies, Abdellatif said.
The boat had entirely disappeared when the coast guard arrived at the scene, around 1 km from the beach, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at trust.org ...
And that says it all about government. I wonder how many Admirals the Libyan Coast Guard has...
My view of Muslim countries has changed. I used to think that all these lunatics holding power by force needed to be removed. Nothing is further from the truth. Dictators needed to be in place to control the real lunatics. Every time the strongman is ousted things deteriorate from their usual miserable circumstances to absolute chaos.
[sarc tag on]
Over a half dozen freedom fighters aboard Mavi Marmara were sadistically murdered by Zionist stooges.
While I don’t fault anyone for not wanting to live in Libya, the muzzies who live there are the ones who made it into a hellhole they want to get away from.
No, not "many", almost ALL head for Italy (Lampedusa) simply because it's closest to Africa. The Italian Solution is to put them on trains heading north and the Italians' worries are over. While a clear breach of EU treaties, it works because the countries to the north don't send them back.
all infidels suck and deserve death, but all the sandpeople migrate to infidel countries for bennies and safety.
hmmmm.
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