Migrant crisis: Libya boats search for more bodies

Libyan rescuers worked throughout the night to search for survivors and recover bodies

Fishing boats off the Libyan coast are searching for more bodies after two migrant vessels capsized on Thursday.

Around 200 people are feared to have drowned as they tried to cross from Zuwara, west of Tripoli, to Italy.

The victims include Syrians, Bangladeshis and people from sub-Saharan Africa.

Police in Italy have detained 10 suspected traffickers after 52 people were found dead in the hold of a ship off the coast of Libya on Wednesday.

BBC Africa Live: News updates

Image captionRescued migrants have been taken to a detention centre in Libya

The Libyan coast-guard worked overnight on Thursday to search for survivors from the latest tragedy.

But Libya is poorly equipped to carry out rescue operations as the boats available to its coast-guard are small, BBC North Africa correspondent Rana Jawad reports from Tunis.

Dozens of bodies have been recovered, but it is difficult to verify the exact numbers.

At least 150 survivors of the two sinkings have been taken to a refugee centre and a detention centre in Libya.

Image captionThis Syrian man and his daughter were among the survivorsImage captionA young Syrian boy recovers in a Libyan hospital

While most of the victims are thought to be from Syria and African countries, a Bangladeshi diplomat told the BBC that at least five Bangladeshi nationals, including a six-month-old baby, were among the dead.

Some survivors were rescued having spent the night in the water, clinging to life jackets.

'Murder'

Meanwhile officials in Palermo investigating the deaths of 52 migrants found dead in a boat's hold on Wednesday have detained 10 of the 571 survivors brought ashore, on suspicion of murder, Rai TV reports.

Prosecutor Maurizio Scalia told AP that those detained included seven Moroccans, two Syrians and a Libyan.

A Swedish coastguard ship, the Poseidon, working with the EU's Frontex border agency, brought the survivors and the bodies to the Sicilian port.

Image captionA refrigerated container with the bodies of dead migrants was unloaded from the Poseidon in PalermoImage captionThese migrants survived and were brought to Palermo on board the Swedish coast-guard vessel

Melissa Fleming from the UNHCR said survivors had recounted being charged money just to come out of the hold and breathe.

One survivor said migrants were beaten with sticks to keep them in the hold, she said.

The United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) says more than 2,500 people have died trying to reach Europe so far in 2015, not including Thursday's deaths.

Meanwhile Austrian police have confirmed that 71 people diedinside a refrigerated lorry found abandoned on a motorway near the Hungarian border. They think that at least some of the dead were from Syria.

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