KAMPALA, May 30 (ANA) – According to a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) report, at least 700 migrants have drowned at sea while attempting to make the crossing from Libya to Europe with rescue vessels battling to counter the unseaworthy ships used by people-traffickers.
UNRWA said that last Thursday at least 500 people lost their lives in a single capsising, while another 100 died in a second sinking. Rescuers pulled another 45 bodies from the sea.
According to some of the 13,000 rescued survivors, another 200 migrants may have also drowned.
Patrol craft from Italy, Ireland and Germany, along with ships sent by humanitarian groups have been responsible for most of the rescues.
One Italian official said that the sheer number of migrant craft being launched by the traffickers was making it extremely difficult to coordinate multiple life-saving operations.
A Save the Children spokesman, Giovanna Di Benedetto, told AFP that survivors had claimed that 1,100 people had left Sabratha in Libya on Wednesday crowded into two fishing vessels and a dinghy.
“The first boat, carrying some 500 people, was reportedly towing the second, which was carrying another 500. But the second boat began to sink. Some people tried to swim to the first boat, others held onto the rope linking the vessels,†she said.
The Sudanese captain of the first boat is supposed to have cut the rope, decapitating a woman when the line snapped back. The second boat, with people crammed into its hold, then sank rapidly.
Three people-traffickers, including the Sudanese captain, were arrested upon arrival in Sicily after some of the refugees identified them to the Italian authorities.
– African News Agency (ANA)
