5 Dead, Including 3 Children, Latest to Die During Europe-Bound Migration From Libya

Two women and three children died, drowning after a boat carrying dozens of migrants attempting to flee Libya for Europe capsized, the U.N. said Wednesday.

The shipwreck was the latest in a series of migration attempts from the North African country. Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the incident occurred late Tuesday night.

Msehli said a fishing boat and Libya's coast guard managed to rescue 77 of the migrants and return them to shore, but five of them were not able to be saved, the Associated Press reported.

In total, 400 migrants were returned to Libya on Tuesday, where they were taken to detention centers, Msehli said. That number adds to hundreds of others who were intercepted and returned to the country over the weekend.

On March 29, the IOM tweeted that nearly 1,000 migrants had been returned to Libya by the coast guard and coastal security in the past 48 hours.

The latest deadly shipwreck marks a growing issue from the country—last month, over 55 migrants were found dead off the coast of Libya, the Associated Press reported.

"At least five lives were lost in a shipwreck off #Libya yesterday, and hundreds of migrants intercepted and detained," Msehli tweeted Wednesday. "This is the consequence of irresponsible migration policy that values containment over human life," Msehli added.

Migration attempts have surged since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising removed and killed longtime leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, leaving Libya a war-torn nation.

The European Union has since partnered with Libya's coast guard and other local groups to curb the influx of dangerous ship crossings, Al Jazeera reported.

Human rights advocates have argued that migrants are often left at the mercy of armed groups or confined into inhumane detention centers once they are intercepted.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:

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

Smugglers often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route. Over the last several years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached Europe either on their own or after being rescued at sea.

Thousands have drowned along the way. Others were intercepted and returned to Libya to be left at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers that lack adequate food and water, according to rights groups.