No fewer than 41 migrants might have died following a shipwreck on the Mediterranean Sea route from Libya to Italy over the weekend, two United Nations agencies disclosed yesterday.
The 41 migrants were among the 120 passengers of a dinghy that left Libya on February 18, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated.
The groups in a joint statement explained that the dinghy started taking in water after about 15 hours at sea, and eight people died before a merchant vessel came to help.
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‘Many people lost their lives at sea during a difficult and delicate rescue operation’, during which only one body was recovered, the statement added.
Three children and four women, including the mother of a baby brought ashore to Italy’s Lampedusa island, are among the missing.
UNHCR and IOM said they heard ‘detailed testimonies‘ of the shipwreck from 77 survivors who were taken to the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle.
The central Mediterranean migration route is known as one of the world’s deadliest but desperate migrants seem too difficult to be persuaded to have a change of mind.
The UN agencies said about 160 migrants and refugees have died so far this year trying to reach Europe from North Africa.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK