15 migrants found dead on Sudan border, claims Libya

Agency says the vehicle broke down due to lack of fuel. They did not have enough food and water; two still missing

Libyan authorities said on Saturday they found at least 15 migrants dead in the desert on the borders with Sudan, the latest tragedy involving migrants seeking a beter life in Europe via perilous journeys through the conflict-wrecked nation.

The Department for Combating Irregular Migration (DCIM) in the southeastern city of Kufra said the migrants were on their way from Sudan to Libya when their vehicle broke down due to lack of fuel.

The agency said nine other migrants survived while two remain missing in the desert. There were women and children among the migrants, but the agency did not elaborate on how many.

It also did not reveal causes of the migrants’ death, but said they did not have enough food and water.

It said the migrants were all Sudanese - from a country in turmoil for years.

The migrants likely atempted to reach western Libya in efforts to board trafficking boats to Europe.

The agency posted images on Facebook showing bodies purportedly of the dead migrants who were later burned in the desert.

The tragedy was the latest in Libya’s sprawling desert.

In June, authorities in Kufra said they found the bodies of 20 migrants who they said died of thirst in the desert ater their vehicle broke down close to the border with Chad.

Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders with six nations.

The migrants are then packed into ill-equipped rubber boats and set off on risky sea voyages.

Separately, authorities in Austria say three people died on Saturday when a van carrying 20 people believed to be migrants overturned ater evading a police check.

Police in the eastern district of Burgenland, near Vienna, said officers tried to stop the white van at the border with Slovakia early Saturday, but the driver drove off at high speed.

Shortly aterward he lost control of the vehicle and it toppled into a ditch.

Two men and a woman were killed in the crash, and at least seven others were seriously injured.

Police said four children were among the 20 migrants found inside the van’s cargo section.

The identities and countries of origin for the migrants were not yet known, police said.

The driver, believed to be of Russian origin, was arrested, they said.

Separately, the European border agency Frontex said the number of migrants arriving in the European Union (EU) rose by 86 percent between January and July compared to the same period last year.

In July alone, the number increased by 63 per cent year on year to 34,570, according to a news release publishing the preliminary data.

Overall, 155,090 migrants arrived in the EU from January to July, it said.

Ukrainian refugees entering the EU through border crossings were not included in the figures, the agency said.

According to Frontex, 7.7 million Ukrainian citizens have entered the EU since the start of the Russian invasion in February.

More than 14,866 irregular entries, “nearly three times more” than in July last year, were recorded via the Western Balkan route, which continues to be “the most active.”

The main nationalities on this route were migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.

The central Mediterranean route was used by more than 42,500 migrants between January and July, an increase of 44 percent compared to the first seven months of last year.

The number of detections on the Eastern Mediterranean route remained high with 22,601 arrivals, “more than double” compared to last year.

The number of arrivals in Cyprus accounted for more than half of the total number of detections, with most migrants coming from Syria, Nigeria and Congo.

On the EU’S eastern border, the number of illegal crossings has fallen by 32 percent since the start of the year, to 2,923.

The main nationalities present on this route were Ukrainian, Iraqi and Belarusian nationals.

Channel crossings, meanwhile, increased by 55 percent compared to January-july 2021, to 28,000 cases detected, according to Frontex.