At least 57 bodies washed ashore after two migrant boats sank in the Mediterranean near different towns in western Libya, a coast guard official and a rescue worker said on Sunday.

The picture shows the survivors who were carried back to the shore by coastal patrols after the ship sank.

(Reuters)

[Instant News/Comprehensive Report] A Libyan coast guard official and a rescuer said on the 25th that two migrant boats sank in the Mediterranean Sea near different towns in western Libya, and at least 57 bodies washed ashore.

Bassam Mahmoud, a survivor from Egypt, said a boat carrying 80 people to Europe set off at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

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He said there was a dispute on board when the ship sank, but the person in charge refused to stop the ship.

"We were arguing until someone caught up to us. It was a horrible scene, some people died in front of me (in the water)."

Coast Guard official Fathi al-Zayani said 11 bodies, including a child, were found near Qarabulli, east of the capital Tripoli, from migrants from Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt.

A Red Crescent agency rescuer in Sabratha, west of Tripoli, said they had recovered 46 bodies on the beach over the past six days, all from the same boat that carried the illegal migrants.

Rescuers said more bodies were expected to wash ashore in the coming days.

The International Organization for Migration said this month that 441 migrants and refugees drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe in early 2023, the highest number of deaths in a three-month period in the past six years.

Italy has rescued 47 boats carrying about 1,600 migrants in the central Mediterranean over the past two days and brought them ashore on the island of Lampedusa.