At least 17 bodies believed to be those of migrants have been recovered in recent days from the shore near a coastal town west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli-based medics said on Saturday.

The Emergency Medicine and Support Center, which operates under the health ministry, said the bodies were recovered from the shores of Zuwara, some 117 km (72.7 miles) to the west of Tripoli.

A total of 14 bodies have been buried according to protocols, the centre said, and one body of a Bangladeshi national was identified and received by his family in Tripoli. No further details were provided on the remaining two bodies.

Images posted on the centre’s verified Facebook page showed medics placing bodies in white plastic bags before loading them into ambulances.

Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.