Over twenty migrants have died, with dozens more still missing after their makeshift boat sank off Libya, the Libyan Navy reported.
“A navy patrol on Monday rescued 22 clandestine migrants who were clinging to debris from their boat,” spokesman Colonel Ayoub Kassem told AFP.
Surviving migrants reported around 150 people had been crammed aboard the boat which sank approximately 60 miles east of Libyan capital of Tripoli.
The migrants, reportedly originating from the south of the Sahara desert, traversed the troublesome Libya, seeking to reach Italy or Malta.
The search and rescue efforts for the missing are still under way.
[mappress] World Maritime News Staff; July 30, 2014