Many missing after boat disaster off Libya

Many missing after boat disaster off Libya

Libyan naval officials say 63 migrants trying to reach Europe are missing after their inflatable boat sank east of the capital, Tripoli.

Forty-one people aboard who wore lifejackets were rescued.

Those missing are among 170 people who’ve disappeared since Friday.

Smugglers are exploiting migrants desperate to get to the EU before it tightens its borders, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

“There is an alarming increase in deaths at sea off Libya’s coast,” IOM’s Libya Chief of Mission Othman Belbeisi said.

More than 1,000 people have died while sailing from Libya to Europe so far this year.