Geneva: As many as 150 Europe-bound migrants, including women and children, were missing and feared drowned on Thursday after the boats they were traveling in capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, the country's coast guard and the UN refugee agency said.
Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, released a video statement from Geneva saying the incident is now the largest shipwreck of 2019.
The two boats carrying around 300 migrants capsized around 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli.
Yaxley said roughly 147 had been saved and 150 died at sea although Ayoub Gassim, a spokesman for Libya's coast guard, said 137 refugees were rescued and that the coast guard had recovered just one body so far.
Earlier this week, the Libyan coast guard intercepted around three dozen migrants off the coast and took them to a detention center near Tripoli where an airstrike killed more than 50 people earlier this month.
Over 200 detainees are still being held at the Tajoura detention center, near the front lines of fighting between rival Libyan factions. The UN has voiced concern for their safety.
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Yaxley used his message to call for more search and rescue boats operating on the Mediterranean as well as the immediate release of people from detention centers in Libya.
"We must now see a change in approach to the situation in Libya and the Mediterranean that has, at its core, saving lives as a priority," he said.
