Dec 22, 2021: A UN migration official says more than 160 migrants have drowned in the wreckage of two separate ships near Libya.

A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Safa Msehli, said on Tuesday that at least 102 migrants had been killed in a wooden boat capsize in Libya on Friday. At least eight others were rescued and returned to shore, he said.

The second boat capsized on Saturday with Msehli saying Libyan coastguards had recovered at least 62 bodies of migrants. That same day, he said, the Coast Guard intercepted a third wooden boat carrying at least 210 migrants. The deaths were the latest disaster in the Mediterranean, with migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

The new deaths bring the number of migrants who have drowned en route to the Mediterranean this year to 1,500, Msehli said. Recent months have seen an increase in cross-border and cross-border efforts from Libya, as authorities have stepped up their deadly crackdown on migrants in the capital, Tripoli.

According to the IOM, about 31,500 migrants were deported to Libya in 2021, up from about 11,900 last year. The UN agency says about 980 migrants were killed or are thought to have died in 2020. Between December 12 and 18, 466 migrants were detained or rescued at sea and returned to Libya, the IOM said.

Libya has emerged as a major transit point for people fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos in 2011 after a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and assassinated longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Human smugglers took advantage of the chaos in the oil-rich country and smuggled people across the country’s long border with six countries.