CAIRO — A boat carrying 86 migrants sank in the Mediterranean and left
only three survivors, authorities said Thursday, just days after an airstrike on a detention center near the Libyan capital killed dozens of others.
The twin tragedies illustrate the almost unthinkable choice facing those
who have reached the North Africa coast while seeking a better life in
Europe: Risk a hazardous sea voyage in a flimsy, rubber-sided boat, or face being crammed into a detention center, where some of the migrants say they have been forced to assemble weapons for someone else's war.
The United Nations and aid groups blame the deaths in part on the
European Union's policy of partnering with militias in war-torn Libya to
prevent migrants from trying to cross the sea. They say the policy
leaves migrants at the mercy of brutal traffickers or confined in
detention facilities near front lines, often without adequate food and
water.
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