Libya has recovered 82 bodies washed
ashore after a boat packed with migrants sank near the western town of Zuwara,
a Red Crescent official said on Friday. "About 100 people are still missing," said Ibrahim
al-Attoushi, the Red Crescent official, adding that about 198 migrants had been
rescued. The boat sank on Thursday
after leaving Zuwara, a major launchpad for smugglers shipping migrants to
Italy by exploiting a security vacuum in Libya where rival governments and
dozens of armed groups fight for control.
Many of
the migrants on board, most from sub-Saharan Africa, had been trapped in the
hold when the boat capsized, officials said.
BBC/AP/Reuters
report continues:
Lacking
proper navy ships, Libyan officials were searching for survivors on Friday with
boats provided by fishermen.
"We,
the Red Crescent, work with nothing. Some fishermen help us with a boat,"
said Attoushi. "We only have one ambulance car."
Libyan
officials brought 147 survivors to a detention facility for illegal migrants in
Sabratha, west of Tripoli, a Libyan security official said, asking not to be
named.
The
Italian coast guard, which has been coordinating rescue operations with the
European Union off the Libyan coast, said it had no information about the
incident.
"We
have not received a request for help," a spokesman for the Italian coast
guard said.
Libya
has turned into a major transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty
to make it to Europe. Cross-border smuggler networks exploit the country's
lawlessness and chaos to bring Syrians into Libya via Egypt or nationals of
sub-Saharan countries via Niger, Sudan and Chad.
The number
of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed
300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014, the U.N. refugee
agency UNHCR said on Friday.
More than 2,500 people have
died making the crossing this year, not including those feared drowned off
Libya in the last 24 hours, it said. That compares with 3,500 who died or went
missing in the Mediterranean in 2014.
Dozens
of survivors have been found, but many are feared to have drowned - adding to
the more than 2000 who have already died in 2015 trying to cross the Mediterranean
from North Africa.
Regina
Catrambone from the Maltese charity Migrant Offshire Aid Station told the BBC
that Europe needed to take a more compassionate approach to the issue.
"People are dying, and
we need to have solidarity with these people, because these are human beings
like us," she said. 
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