The bodies of five migrants including a Moroccan child were recovered off Libya's coast Tuesday while up to 20 others were missing after a Europe-bound boat sank, the navy said. 

Navy spokesman Ayoub Kacem told reporters 65 migrants, mostly from Sudan, were rescued off Khoms, a town 120 kilometers east of Tripoli. 

The vessel was believed to have been carrying up to 90 people, he said, based on survivors' accounts. 

Libya has long been a major transit route for migrants, especially from sub-Saharan Africa. 

People traffickers have operated with impunity in the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising which toppled and killed former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

(Cover: Rescued migrants sit in a coast guard point in Khoms on August 27, 2019, after they were saved off the coast of the Libyan city. /VCG Photo)