TRIPOLI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-two bodies of illegal migrants were retrieved by the Libyan Red Crescent in the coastal city Zwara, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said on Sunday.
"These painful deaths are the result of the increasingly hardening policy towards people fleeing conflict and extreme poverty, and a failure to humanely manage migration flows," Federico Soda tweeted.
IOM's Missing Migrant Project tweeted last Thursday that 45 more deaths, including five children, were recorded in the largest shipwreck off the country's coast in 2020 and called on migrants not to risk their lives to seek a better life.
Libya became a preferred point of departure for thousands of illegal migrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe after its leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in 2011, creating a state of insecurity and chaos in the country.
More than 7,000 migrants who tried to flee Libya have been rescued or intercepted and returned so far this year, with most ending up in detention, according to IOM Libya.
Migration detention centers in Libya have been overcrowded with migrants despite repeated international calls to close them. Enditem
