Tripoli - More than 20 migrants have died and dozens are
missing after their makeshift boat sank off the Libyan coast,
the navy said late Tuesday.
"A navy patrol on Monday rescued 22 clandestine migrants
who were clinging to debris from their boat", spokesperson
Colonel Ayoub Kassem said, adding that more than 20 bodies
were plucked from the water.
Survivors said some 150 people had been aboard the vessel,
which sank some 100km east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Search operations for possible other survivors continued into
Wednesday.
The migrants from south of the Sahara desert had sought to
reach the Italian coast or nearby Malta after crossing restive
and lawless Libya.
Hundreds of would-be immigrants die in the process every
year, while others are detained by Italian police once they
reach the southern EU member's territorial waters or the
islands of Sicily or Lampedusa.
This year nearly 80 000 migrants have landed in Italy so far,
many more than the 2011 record of a total of 63 000,
according to authorities in Rome.
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