The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Migrant boat

  • 117 people feared dead after migrant boat sinks off Libya

    ONE hundred and seventeen people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya after a dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean, a spokesman for the UN’s migration agency (IOM) said yesterday.

    Three survivors who were rescued said there were 120 people on the boat, Flavio Di Giacomo said.

    “There are therefore 117 missing people, including 10 women and two children (one was just two months old),” the spokesman wrote on Twitter.

    He added that many of the migrants on board were from West Africa, but there were also about 40 Sudanese on board, according to those who survived.

    The survivors were rescued by the Italian coastguard on Friday and brought to the Island of Lampedusa.

    The coastguard had originally said just 20 people were on board the boat, which found itself in distress  50 nautical miles (92.6 kilometres) north-east of Tripoli.

    Di Giacomo later told Italian media that the incident could be a much worse tragedy.

    “They told us that 120 people were on the dinghy that set out from Libya on Thursday night.

    “After 10 to 11 hours at sea, the boat began deflating and started to sink. The people fell into the sea and drowned,” Di Giacomo said

    Since Italy has largely closed its ports to migrants, fewer and fewer of them are arriving from Libya. However, people are still dying on the dangerous crossing.

    Since the beginning of 2019, no fewer than 83 people have been killed in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM. In the same period last year, there were 199 deaths.

    “As long as Europe’s ports remain open, as long as someone helps the smugglers, unfortunately the smugglers continue to do business and continue killing,” Italy’s right-wing Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, said.

    Since Italy’s new populist government decided in June to close its ports to migrant rescue charities, EU governments have clashed on how to handle incoming asylum seekers from North Africa.

    Rome’s hardline stance left two German charity rescue boats with dozens of migrants stranded for weeks in the Mediterranean until eight EU nations agreed to take them in.

  • 117 people feared dead after migrant boat sinks off Libya

     

    One hundred and seventeen people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya after a dinghy boat capsized in the Mediterranean, a spokesman for the UN’s migration agency (IOM) said on Saturday

    Three survivors who were rescued said there were 120 people on the boat, Flavio Di Giacomo said.

    “There are therefore 117 missing people including 10 women and 2 children (one was just 2 months old),” the spokesman wrote on Twitter.

    He added that many of the migrants on board were from West Africa, but there were also about 40 Sudanese on board, according to those who survived.

    The survivors were rescued by the Italian coastguard on Friday and brought to the island of Lampedusa.

    The coastguard had originally said just 20 people were on board the boat, which found itself in distress 50 nautical miles (92.6 kilometres) north-east of Tripoli.

    Di Giacomo later told Italian media that the incident could be a much worse tragedy.

    “They told us that 120 people were on the dinghy that set out from Libya on Thursday night.

    READ ALSO: Dozens of migrants found dead on Mediterranean Sea

    “After 10 to 11 hours at sea, the boat began deflating and started to sink. The people fell into the sea and drowned,” Di Giacomo said

    Since Italy has largely closed its ports to migrants, fewer and fewer of them are arriving from Libya. However, people are still dying on the dangerous crossing.

    Since the beginning of 2019, no fewer than 83 people have been killed in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM. In the same period last year, there were 199 deaths.

    “As long as Europe’s ports remain open, as long as someone helps the smugglers, unfortunately the smugglers continue to do business and continue killing,” Italy’s right-wing Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said.

    Since Italy’s new populist government decided in June to close its ports to migrant rescue charities, EU governments have clashed on how to handle incoming asylum seekers from North Africa.

    Rome’s hardline stance left two German charity rescue boats with dozens of migrants stranded for weeks in the Mediterranean until eight EU nations agreed to take them in.(dpa/NAN)

  • 31 bodies recovered after migrant boat sinks off Libya

    31 bodies recovered after migrant boat sinks off Libya

    At least 31 migrants died after their boat sank off Libya ‘s western coast yesterday and some 200 others were picked up by the coastguard to be brought back to port in Tripoli, officials said.

    The migrants were on two boats off the coast near Garabulli, east of Tripoli, one of which had already sunk when the coastguard arrived at the scene, said Abu Ajala Amer Abdelbari, a coast guard commander.

    “The boat had sunk and they were spread out in the sea, they were trying to swim towards the coast,” he said.

    “There were about 60 people who we were able to save because they were clinging to the (remains of the) boat.”

    Another 140 migrants were picked up from the second boat, he said.

    The dead, including a number of children, were brought back to Tripoli naval base where they were unloaded in white plastic body bags.

     

     

  • 50 bodies found on migrant boat

    At least 50 people have been found dead in the hold of a boat carrying migrants intercepted off the coast of Libya, the Italian coastguard said.

    Italian media reports said the deaths were probably caused by asphyxiation.

    About 430 people were rescued alive from the boat by a Swedish coastguard ship, the Poseidon, working with the European Union’s Frontex border agency, the BBC reports.

    Thousands of migrants have died and many thousands more have been rescued after setting sail from Libya recently.

    Wednesday’s rescue operation was one of 10 such missions currently taking place in the waters off Libya, the Italian coastguard said.

    Earlier in August, the Italian navy discovered the bodies of 49 people in the hold of a vessel.

    Those migrants were thought to have died of asphyxiation. Survivors later testified that smugglers had forced them to remain in the hold.

    Smugglers based in Libya are believed to be taking advantage of calmer seas to send more boatloads of migrants towards European shores.

    European officials have described the plight of migrants, almost 250,000 of whom have crossed by boat to the continent this year, as “beyond urgent.”

    So far this year, more than 2,000 migrants have died trying to cross the sea to Europe, the United Nations said.