At least 61 migrants drown off the coast of Libya, according to the IOM. Said

The ship left with 86 people on board, the International Organization for Migration in Libya said, and women and children were among the people who died in the shipwreck.

More than 60 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, an international migrant agency said on Saturday, another chapter in the continuing death toll in the Mediterranean Sea as African populations flee famine. , conflicts and other upheavals for distant shores.

The International Organization for Migration in Libya said in a message on the social platform were among the 61 migrants who died. The Libyan government did not immediately comment on the agency's report.

The boat left from the Libyan town of Zwara with around 86 people, the agency said. agency, citing survivors of the sinking. It is not known exactly when he began his journey. The I.O.M. said that "the central Mediterranean continues to be one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world."

Earlier this year, at least 73 migrants died in another disaster off the Libyan coast. The episode involved a boat carrying at least 80 people that reportedly left Qasr Alkayar, Libya, on February 14, bound for Europe, the IOM said. said at the time. Seven people survived and 11 bodies were found, the statement said.

More than 28,000 Africans have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to the IOM. data. Many moved north, to countries like Italy and Greece, in one of Europe's most defining challenges.

In June, At least 79 people drowned in the Mediterranean after a large boat carrying migrants sank, Greek authorities said, in the deadliest such episode off the country's coast since the height of the 2015 migration crisis. More than 100 people were rescued.

And in February, a wooden boat carrying between 130 and 180 migrants crashed against rocks near from a seaside town in southern Italy, drowning at least 59 people. people, including a newborn and other children, authorities said.

European leaders have implemented a patchwork of policies to manage the influx, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. announcing in November that his government had reached an agreement with Albania, a non-European Union country across the Adriatic Sea, to outsource the processing and containment of migrants. But Italian politicians, surprised by Ms. Meloni's announcement, questioned whether the deal was legal, ethical, practical or even real.

Greece has adopted a hard line towards migrants. Its justice system has cracked down on non-governmental organizations that work with migrants, and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' government has been accused of illegally pushing asylum seekers back to sea.