Tripoli: More than 100 migrants are feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Libya, the Libyan navy said on Friday.
The navy also recovered the bodies of three children, and rescued 16 others, Xinhua quoted Libyan navy spokesman Ayob Qassem as saying.
Their rubber boat was rickety and overcrowded, he added.
According to one of the rescued migrants, the boat carried around 125 immigrants of different African and Arab nationalities, including dozens of women and children.
Libyan navy rescued nearly 2,000 migrants in the past two weeks off the country’s western coast, and recovered bodies of more than 30 others drowned at sea.
Libya is a preferred point of departure for migrants who want to cross the Mediterranean toward Europe because of insecurity and chaos in their countries.
–IANS