At least 53 migrants, including two babies, are feared dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of Libya, the International Organisation for Migration has said.

The UN migration agency said in a statement that only two Nigerian women were rescued during a search-and-rescue operation by the Libyan authorities.

The IOM said the boat overturned in the cold waters of the central Mediterranean Sea, north of the coastal town of Zuwara, over the weekend.

According to IOM, one Nigerian survivor said that her husband had drowned, while the other reported that both her babies had died.

The survivors explained that the vessel had been carrying migrants and refugees from several African countries.

It had set off from Zawiya at about 11:00 p.m. on Thursday and began taking on water six hours later, before capsizing.

It is not yet known where the travellers were heading, but many migrant and refugee boats leaving Libya set sail for the Italian island of Lampedusa (350 kilometres from Zawiya).

The open rubber dinghies they often sail in are totally unsuitable for such a journey, UN aid teams have often warned.

IOM warned that this is just the latest shipwreck amid severe winter weather, with many more tragedies feared to be unrecorded.

”IOM does not consider Libya to be a safe port for migrants,” it said.

IOM highlighted the dangers migrants continue to face following the discovery of more mass graves and detention sites in the east of the country.

”Investigations indicate that the victims had been held in captivity and subjected to torture to coerce ransom payments from their families,” the IOM said after a raid on an illegal detention site in Ajdabiya.

The IOM also said that in Kufra, authorities discovered an underground detention site three metres underground, where a total of 221 migrants and refugees were released, including women, children and a one-month-old baby.

“Initial information suggests that the migrants had been held for a prolonged period in grossly inhumane conditions,” it said.

To help vulnerable people on the move, IOM supports voluntary flights home for foreign nationals.

In late January, the agency helped 177 Nigerian migrants return home on another voluntary humanitarian flight.

No fewer than 375 were reported dead or missing in January alone in the central Mediterranean, according to IOM missing migrants’ database.

From January 1 to February 7, no fewer than 781 migrants have been intercepted and returned to Libya, the UN agency said, with 244 taken back just last week.

Trafficking and smuggling gangs have flourished in Libya since the overthrow of President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Smuggling and trafficking networks continue to profit from desperate people by sending them to sea in unseaworthy boats, IOM noted.

The UN migration agency renewed calls for greater international cooperation and safer, legal routes for migration.

IOM works with national and regional authorities to strengthen cross-border cooperation in a bid to dismantle trafficking networks and support survivors.

(NAN)