The Libyan coast guard rescued 117 survivors while retrieving the bodies of five migrants after the sinking of their boat off the country.
According to Officer Rami Gomeid at the French Agency, the migrants "were riding an inflatable boat, about to sink, about 8 nautical miles off Abu Kamas." "Five migrants were pulled out dead while 117 others on board the inflatable, including women and children, were rescued and taken to the Libyan capital."
One of the survivors told AFP that an Italian boat in the area refused to rescue them.
"When we approached the Italian rescuers, they refused to help us and stayed there waiting for a Libyan Coast Guard boat to arrive. While trying to reach the ship, three women and two little boys fell into the water and drowned. "Everyone wanted to get on the ship because the inflatable was putting water."
According to Ayub Kasem, a spokesman for the Libyan Coast Guard, another 76 migrants were rescued from another boat off the city of Zawiya last Sunday.
Last week, Italy's new government decided to close the country's ports on a ship of two humanitarian organizations that rescued more than 600 migrants.
The ship, the Aquarius, accompanied by vessels of the Italian port, finally docked in Valencia, Spain.
As of January, about 10.760 migrants have passed through Libya to Italy, a number reduced by more than 80% since the corresponding period of 2017, according to data from the Italian Ministry of Interior.