Rescue charity recovers 11 bodies from sea off Libya

A charity rescue ship recovered the bodies of 11 migrants off the coast of Libya on Friday after saving more than 160 people from boats close to the North
African country, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group said.
MSF said its Geo Barents search and rescue vessel picked up 146 migrants in two operations and then found a further 20 in a separate boat. However, they also plucked the bodies of 11 people who were seen by a spotter plane floating in the sea.
“We do not know the precise cause of this tragedy, but we know that people continue to die in a desperate attempt to reach safety. This slaughter must end,” MSF said on the social media platform X.
The Sea Watch group, whose plane saw the bodies, said they tried to contact Libya’s coast guard to go and retrieve the dead, but received no reply. “This is what happens in the Mediterranean, even when nobody sees it,” it said in a statement.
The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.