About a dozen Egyptian migrants fleeing from harsh economic situation at home are feared dead after their boat capsized on Monday, off the coast of Tobruk, a town, eastern Libya.
Two Egyptian security sources disclosed that only one of the 13 men on board survived the shipwreck, and was rescued by Libyan authorities.
The migrants are from Egypt’s al-Sharkia and al-Gharbia provinces, and had embarked on the dangerous journey to Italy on Sunday night via a people smugglers’ boat.
The surviving man had also revealed that the group planned to reach Europe amid Egypt’s severe cost of living crisis, including rising inflation and high unemployment rates.
After the NATO-backed overthrow and killing of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the oil rich North African country itself, has remained unstable, even though a central transit point for most African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in search of a better life in Europe.
A U.N. data collected in mid-2024 shows that Libya is now home to over 761,000 migrants from 44 different nationalities, many of whom hope to cross the Mediterranean for a safer and more prosperous future.
The current incident torchlights the risks many migrants face as they undertake the perilous voyages on the sea to escape difficult conditions at home.
