TheCable

Not less than 50 Nigerian migrants were among hundreds of migrants rescued Saturday in the Mediterranean by Libya’s coastguard and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The Nigerians were aboard a boat with 110 migrants. They were rescued by Aquarius, a ship being operated by MSF, 21 miles from the coast west of Tripoli. The ship will deliver the migrants, who included 18 women and one child, to Italy.

NAN reports that more than half of the migrants on that boat were Nigerians, with the rest from other sub-Saharan African countries.

The Libyan coastguard vessels also intercepted two of the migrant boats, the first an inflatable dinghy that had broken down with 125 people on board off Zawiya, just west of the capital, Tripoli, said Ayoub Qassem, a coastguard spokesman.

The second boat was turned back off Garabulli, east of Tripoli, and had 112 people on board.

The migrants and their smugglers were trying to take advantage of calm seas as they launched a flurry of boats towards Italy.

Libya is the main departure point for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea.

More than 600,000 migrants have crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy over the past four years as people smugglers took advantage of a security vacuum in Libya.