TRIPOLI, June 2 (Reuters) - At least two migrants died and
around 25 others were missing after their inflatable boat
capsized off the western Libyan coast, a spokesman for the
coastguard said on Sunday.
A total of 73 migrants were picked up by a coastguard patrol
about 14 miles off Qarabulli town, some 49 km (30.5 miles) east
of the capital Tripoli, spokesman Ayoub Qassem said.
The bodies of a woman and a child were recovered, he added.
The migrants included 40 men, 25 women and eight children
from Sudan, Kenya, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
"A wrecked and inflatable boat was found without an engine
and the illegal migrants were found clinging to it," Qassem
said.
According to the UN migration agency IOM, 2,297 migrants
died or went missing in the Mediterranean last year out of a
total of 116,959 people who reached Europe by sea.
Libya's western coast has become a main departure point for
migrants as smugglers exploit the county's chaos since the
toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
But since July 2017, smuggling networks inside Libya have
been disrupted under an Italian-backed deal with local
authorities in a former smuggling hub of Sabratha town in
western Libya.
The coast guard has stepped up patrols after receiving new
boats from Italy as part of efforts by the right-wing government
there to stop migrants reaching Italian shores from Africa.