Refugee boat sinkings claim at least 100 off Libya, hundreds more missing

The bodies of scores of refugees have been recovered by Libyan authorities responding to two off-coast sinkings of smuggling ships thought to be carrying hundreds of people.

A Red Crescent official told the Associated Press that 105 people have so far been confirmed dead, but it is feared that the total could rise as hundreds are still missing. On Friday, Libyan authorities were observed removing bodies from the waters off the coastal city of Zuwara — a launch pad for overcrowded refugee ships heading to Europe.

This latest incident of refugees dying at sea comes as European nations are confronted with an unprecedented refugees crisis fueled by chaos in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to new figures by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 332,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year to reach Europe — nearly 40 percent more than in all of 2014, which saw the highest numbers ever recorded.  

That number includes over 218,000 who landed in Greece and over 111,600 who reached Italian shores, the intergovernmental agency said Friday. At least 2,636 people have died in the attempt, it said. The vast majority are fleeing war, conflict or persecution in countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea.

Hussein Asheini, the head of Libya's Red Crescent in Zuwara, said at least 105 people were killed, some while trapped inside the boat after it capsized. Fishermen and the coast guard found the waterlogged vessel at sea and towed it back to Zuwara, where they had to break the ship's deck to reach people trapped inside.

"The boat sank out sea, and a coast guard team is still diving in and checking inside to see if there's anyone else," he said. There were conflicting casualty figures and the Red Crescent was still counting the bodies and the survivors, he added.

In a statement, the United Nations refugee agency said that up to 200 people were missing and feared dead after the Libyan coast guard carried out rescue operations Thursday for two boats carrying an estimated 500 migrants.

Meanwhile, Othman Belbeisi, chief of mission for the IOM for Libya, said in a statement: "We are still waiting for more details, but we have learned there were 400 people on one of two boats." He said 100 were rescued, including nine women and two girls.

Libya is a major transit route for refugees hoping to make it to Europe, with dozens of boats leaving its shores each week. Smuggling networks exploit the country's lawlessness and chaos to bring Syrians into Libya via Egypt while Africans arrive through Niger, Sudan and Chad. 

In a separate rescue operation by the Libyan coast guard on Wednesday, UNHCR said 51 people were found dead of suffocation in the hold of a boat, with survivors recounting how smugglers beat them with sticks to keep them under the deck. It said one survivor described how smugglers forced passengers into the packed hold and were demanding money to allow them to come up to breathe fresh air.

Violence and poverty in the Middle East and Africa are driving a surge in refugees headed to Europe, with many crowded rafts capsizing and leaving hundreds feared dead. Libya in particular has been a hotspot for human trafficking, although boats occasionally try to leave from Egypt as well.

In Europe, refugees and migrants have swept north through the Balkans in recent days, with thousands of Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis crossing from Serbia into EU-member Hungary, where authorities said more than 140,000 had been caught entering the country so far this year.

Almost all hope to reach the more affluent countries of northern and western Europe.

More than 2,300 people have died this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 during the whole of last year, according to the IOM. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Anas El Gomati, who founded the Tripoli-based think-tank The Sadeq Institute, said Libya's government does not feel it should be helping pay the bill to deal with refugees making their way to Europe as it is facing continued violence across the country.

"Libya's security approach — and security apparatus — is now completely disorganized and in chaos," he said.

"You have hundreds of different groups that are operating on the ground now, some of them taking advantage of a very, very chaotic situation — one of civil war."

Since a 2011 civil war that ended with the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the oil-rich North African country of Libya has plunged into chaos.

Al Jazeera and wire services