Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
No fewer than 74 bodies have been recovered by the Libyan Red Crescent. It was gathered that corpses of the 74 people were washed ashore on Monday near Zawiya on Libya’s northern coast.
It appears that the deceased had been on a boat attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. A torn rubber dinghy was reportedly found nearby.
Libyan Red Crescent volunteers collected the bodies of the deceased with dignity, placing them in body bags for transfer to a local hospital.
More than 270 people migrating are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean in the first weeks of 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). In 2016, more than 5,000 deaths at sea were recorded, making it the deadliest year on record.
The IFRC calls for collective international action to avert further deaths like these which are tragic and entirely preventable.
