News / Turkey

Turkey rescues 45, Libya saves 120 refugees in east Mediterranean

Sunday, 05 February 2017 1:20 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 February 2017 2:45 PM ]

Refugees are seen on a rubber boat waiting to be evacuated during a rescue operation on November 5, 2016 off the coast of Libya. (AFP photo)

Turkish coast guard has rescued some 45 refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean into Greece while over 120 others were brought to safety by Libyans in the central parts of the volatile sea.

Turkish officials said the rescue operation began after a boat carrying 46 people to the Greek island of Lesbos sank off the Turkish coast.

A coast guard official said an Ethiopian woman was still missing, adding that a search operation was underway. He noted that the refugees, who were from Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Eritrea and Bangladesh, were brought to the Turkish port of Ayvacik before they were sent to a repatriation center.

Many refugees have dared the short but risky journey to Lesbos, which lies just 10 kilometer from the Turkish coast in the north Aegean Sea. The mass flow of refugees from the Middle East, which has seen more than a million taking the route in eastern Mediterranean to reach Europe since early 2015, subsided after Turkey and the European Union reached a deal in March 2016 on the resettlement of refugees from Greece back to Turkey. The deal, however, has apparently forced refugees to take the more risky route in central Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.

Libya rescues 120 off Tripoli coast

Libyan officials said on Sunday that more than 120 refugees were rescued off the coast of Tripoli after their boat ran into trouble. They said the refugees had begun their journey two days earlier from Sabratha, a town 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Libya's capital, but their boat sank after a technical failure.

Coast guard officials said the refugees, who included women and children, were of various African nationalities.

Libyans said on Saturday that they had intercepted more than 400 refugees bound for Europe over the past days.

Italy reported more than 180,000 arrivals last year, prompting concerns that Europe should prepare itself for a new exodus from the south. The chaos in Libya, which started after the fall of the country's former ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, has allowed smuggling networks to develop a lucrative trafficking trade.

European Union leaders agreed in a recent meeting in Malta on a plan to curb the refugee influx from Libya. That includes funding and training for Libya's coast guard while helping Libya’s neighbors to close the routes into the country.