At least four Bangladeshi nationals died after two boats carrying 95 irregular migrants capsized off the Libyan coastal city of Al Khums on Thursday, the Libyan Red Crescent said on Saturday.

According to a statement on its verified Facebook page, the first boat was carrying 26 migrants from Bangladesh, four of whom died. The Red Crescent said the second boat carried 69 migrants, including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, but did not specify their fate.

Khums is a coastal city located around 118km east of the capital, Tripoli.

On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 42 migrants went missing and were presumed dead after a rubber boat sank near the Al Buri oilfield, an offshore facility north-northwest of the Libyan coast.

Libya has long been a major transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching Europe via the Mediterranean, especially since the 2011 fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi during a NATO-backed uprising.

Photographs released by the Khums Red Crescent showed bodies in black plastic bags laid out on the floor, while volunteers were seen providing first aid to survivors. Other images showed rescued migrants wrapped in thermal blankets sitting on the floor.

The Red Crescent statement added that the Coast Guard and the Khums Port Security Agency took part in the rescue operation, and that the bodies were handed over to the relevant authorities following instructions from the city's public prosecution.

In mid-October, a group of 61 bodies of migrants was recovered from the coast west of Tripoli. In September, IOM reported that at least 50 people had died after a vessel carrying 75 Sudanese refugees caught fire off Libya's coast.

Last week, several states including Britain, Spain, Norway and Sierra Leone urged Libya at a UN meeting in Geneva to shut down detention centres where, according to rights groups, migrants and refugees have been tortured, abused and in some cases killed.