409 migrants rescued off Libyan coast in past week

 

Some of the migrants that were rescued off the coast of Libya. [Xinhua]

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday said that 409 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya in the past week.

"From May 12 to 18, 409 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya," IOM said in a statement.

The rescued migrants include 47 women and 31 children, IOM said, adding that the bodies of six migrants were recovered and 20 others went missing.

So far this year, a total of 5,831 migrants have been rescued, while 163 died and 360 others went missing off the Libyan coast, IOM noted.

Many undocumented migrants, mostly from Africa, choose to cross the Mediterranean to European shores from Libya, which has been suffering chaos since 2011 when the late former leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown.