Hundreds Feared Dead in Refugee Shipwrecks Off Libya

Rome, 3 Shafar 1438/3 November 2016 (MINA) – As many as 239 people are feared dead in two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for UNHCR’s based in Rome, said on Thursday that the information was confirmed by survivors brought ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean.

No bodies have yet been recovered. Al Jazeera quoted by MINA as reporting.

Sami said that 31 survivors of two shipwrecks who arrived to Lampedusa on Thursday reported that their boats capsized in heavy seas.

They said 29 people survived the first wreck, and about 120 people had gone missing.

In a separate operation, two women found swimming at sea told rescuers that another 120 people had died in that wreck.

In both cases, most of the people on board appeared to have been from sub-Sahara Africa, but Sami said aid workers were still ascertaining details.

Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said the latest wrecks meant that 4,220 lives had now been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year – the highest toll on record. (T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)