Migrant crisis: Bodies wash ashore in Libya; hundreds missing off Crete

CNN — More than 100 bodies believed to be migrants from capsized boats washed up on a Libyan beach, while hundreds of others are missing in a separate sinking off Greece, officials said Friday.

The bodies of 117 people were recovered from a beach near Zwara, Libya, by Libyan Red Crescent volunteers, Stephen Ryan, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told CNN. He said the dead included 75 women, 36 men and six children.

The bodies found in Libya are possibly from a capsize off the same stretch of Mediterranean coast on Thursday but could also be from other sinkings recently reported in the area. Boats are leaving the Libyan coast in large numbers for Europe, usually docking in Italy as an entrance point into the European Union.

“Considering the deaths in the last days in the Mediterranean, and indeed with the summer season having arrived … the numbers taking to unsafe and overloaded boats to cross the sea to Europe is likely to increase,” Ryan said.

Meanwhile, a boat carrying around 700 migrants capsized 75 nautical miles off the Greek island of Crete, prompting a major rescue operation for hundreds still missing. So far, 340 people have been rescued, and nine bodies recovered, according to the Greek coast guard.

The Greek Coast Guard does not confirm earlier estimates by the International Organization of Migration that about 700 people may have been on the vessel when it took water 75 nautical miles south of Crete.

It is believed that the ship had departed from north Africa heading to Italy.

A Greek coast guard spokeswoman said that five ships in the area came to the migrants’ aid and that the Greek coast guard has deployed two ships and two helicopters to help.

The rescue operation continues under good weather conditions and is conducted by the Greek Shipping Ministry operation centre in Piraeus port.

According to Greek Coast Guard sources the survivors will not disembark in a Greek port but be transferred to Italy, Malta, Egypt and Turkey.