Over 120 migrant bodies washed up off Libya coast

In this July 28, 2016 photo, about 150 sub-Saharan refugees and migrants wait aboard an overcrowded rubber boat to be assisted by an NGO during a rescue operation on the Mediterranean Sea, about 23 kilometers north of Sabratha, Libya. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

TRIPOLI: More than 120 bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe have washed up around Sabratha in western Libya this month, the city’s mayor said on Sunday.
Hussein Thwadi said bodies had washed up on a daily basis, with 53 found on a single day last week.
Libya is a common departure point for migrants seeking to travel to Europe by boat, many of them fleeing violence, repression or poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Political turmoil and armed conflict in Libya have given smugglers the space to work with impunity, running trafficking networks that bring migrants across the Sahara desert to the coast.
Of more than 3,000 migrants known to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, about three out of four perished trying to reach Italy from North Africa, mainly Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Nearly 90,000 migrants had crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy as of this week, the IOM said, a 14 percent increase on the previous year.




As the number of attempted crossings from Libya picked up in the spring with the arrival of calmer weather, many of the boats have been leaving from the coastline near Sabratha.
“The whole coast of Sabratha is open,” Thwadi told Reuters by phone. “There are patrols but they do not have enough capacity to tackle this crisis.”
“Illegal migration existed before, but with insecurity and the lack of state authorities the crisis has become worse and worse.”
Thwadi said most of the migrants whose bodies washed up this month were from sub-Saharan African states, though there were also 23 Tunisians. Red Crescent volunteers and local officials have been removing them for burial in a cemetery for unidentified bodies in Sabratha, he said.




Khizr Khan invited the Republican nominee to read the US Constitution and visit the graves of American soldiers from many backgrounds at Arlington National Cemetery.
In an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Trump cast doubt on why Khan’s wife did not speak.
“She was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me,” Trump said.
Trump on Sunday tweeted that Khan’s son had died twelve years ago: “Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our “leaders” to eradicate it!“
Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized Trump’s remarks about the Khans.
“Just when I think, Trump can’t possibly be a bigger jerk, he proves me wrong,” Republican strategist Ana Navarro said on Twitter, adding that Trump’s comments about the Khans were “gross.”
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the Nov. 8 election, said at a campaign rally on Saturday that Trump’s comments about the Khans were part of a long history of insulting people.
Trump tweeted Sunday that he had been “viciously attacked” by Khan at the convention. “Am I not allowed to respond?” he asked. The candidate also tried to change the subject to the war itself: “Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!“
On CNN on Sunday, Khizr Khan said the couple had received a large outpouring of support after their appearance at the convention. He said people had apparently seen the “blackness” of Trump’s character, adding that Trump’s family needed to “teach him some empathy.”