Dozens of migrants die in Libyan shipwreck as 2021 toll in area nears 1,000

At least 57 died near Khoms, taking the total to 987 so far this year as European authorities decrease patrols

At least 57 people have died after a boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, with nearly 1,000 asylum seekers having perished so far in 2021 in the central Mediterranean, four times as many as in the same period last year, charities and the UN migration agency said.

Flavio Di Giacomo, Italy's spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the shipwreck raised the death toll to 987. Last year there were 272. We must no longer hesitate, and do everything to strengthen the system of patrols at sea," he said.