The more common sea route for asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in Europe is from Turkey to Greece or Italy. “Due to the high number of passengers and the poor health conditions, the vessel was unseaworthy,” the coast guard said in a statement Tuesday. It said the migrants — whose nationalities were not made public — had paid between $6,500-8,000 each to be taken to Italy. On June 28, 166 migrants on an unseaworthy fishing boat that had left Lebanon for Italy were rescued off Karpathos. Greece’s coast guard charged six people on board with migrant smuggling in that case.

Source: Libya Today August 02, 2022 18:54 UTC