Eleven migrants have died and nearly 200 are missing after two boats carrying asylum seekers sank off the coast of Libya, UN agencies said on Monday citing survivors.
A spokesperson for the United Nations migration agency said more than 193 drowned over the weekend, and that those rescued showed signs of torture.
The Libyan Red Crescent said it had recovered 11 bodies on the shore in Zawiya.
“All the bodies are of female victims and there is a girl of less than one year old,” said spokesman Mohanad Krima.
Some 50 survivors were picked up by a Danish container ship, the Alexander Maersk, which was alerted to divert by Italian coastguards and dropped them off on Sunday in Pozzallo, southern Sicily.
Representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) were able to meet them on Monday to hear their accounts.
Survivors told them that women and children were among those missing.
