More than 2,250 people have died this year on the central Mediterranean migrant route, according to the International Organization for Migration

At least 61 people are missing and presumed dead after a shipwreck off the western coast of Libya, in the latest migrant tragedy off north Africa.

The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement on X that strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Saturday.

Citing survivors’ accounts, it said there were about 86 migrants aboard the vessel when it departed.

‘The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world,’ the agency wrote.

Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

The country is a major launching point for people trying to reach the Europe, with more than 2,250 people dying on this route this year, IOM spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo said.

It is ‘a dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea,’ he said.

IOM data shows that more than 28,000 Africans have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean since 2014.

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

They are crowded into ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages.

Those who are intercepted and then returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centres rife with abuses, including forced labour, torture and rapes, which amount to crimes against humanity, according to UN-commissioned investigators.

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Children are amongst those presumed dead.