AN AID group said on Saturday that it recovered the bodies of 11 migrants off the Libyan coast and transferred them to an Italian coastguard ship off Lampedusa island, where thousands are trying to reach from north Africa.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that its Geo Barents rescue ship had recovered the bodies following a search operation that lasted more than nine hours, after being alerted by German humanitarian organisation Sea Watch, which also rescues migrants at sea.

The German group said that it was unclear whether the migrants were victims of a previous shipwreck, saying they had tried to contact Libya’s coastguard to recover the bodies but received no reply.