Migrant boat sinks: Horror in the Med after Libyan coastguard vessel collides with boat

Migrant boat sinks: Horror in the Med after Libyan coastguard vessel collides with boat
SEA WATCH
Mark White

By Mark White


Published: 29/09/2023

- 21:32

Video footage shows a large migrant inflatable boat begin to sink

The Libyan coastguard has been accused of deliberately ramming and sinking a migrant boat in the Mediterranean, leaving dozens in the water, some still missing.

GB News has received dramatic video of the incident, taken by the Sea-Watch NGO off the coast of Bengazhi in western Libya.


The video shows a large migrant inflatable boat begin to sink, with a Libyan coastguard vessel and rigid inflatable nearby.

As the Sea-Watch helicopter filmed, dozens of people could be seen in the water.

Dozens of people could be seen in the water, not everyone has been accounted for

SEA WATCH

Tyre inner-tubes can be seen on the helicopter video floating in the sea. They're used by the migrants as makeshift lifejackets.

A Sea-Watch spokesperson said: "The unit of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard rammed and caused the sinking of a dinghy overloaded with at least 50 people.

"Some of them were certainly captured and deported to Libya. The survivors cannot be found."

The boat was one of multiple vessels which left the coast of North Africa today, bound for Italian islands.

High winds in the Mediterranean had prevented any migrant boats from sailing for the past week, since more than 11,000 migrants arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Three migrant boats, carrying around a hundred people arrived in Lampedusa earlier on Friday.

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