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News > World

245 Feared Dead After Weekend Shipwrecks off Libyan Coast

  • Migrants are rescued during a MOAS operation off the coast of Libya August 18, 2016 in this handout picture courtesy of the Italian Red Cross released on August 19, 2016.

    Migrants are rescued during a MOAS operation off the coast of Libya August 18, 2016 in this handout picture courtesy of the Italian Red Cross released on August 19, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 8 May 2017
Opinion

About 7,500 people have been rescued off the coast of Libya since Thursday.

The weekend disaster of two shipwrecks off Libya has raised the final toll of refugees dead or missing to 245, according to the latest numbers released Tuesday by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR. 

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The death toll was previously raised to 50 in the two incidents, partly based on the horrifying accounts of the hospitalized survivors. Libya's coastguard picked up seven survivors over the weekend who said they had been on a boat packed with 170 migrants. Aid agency International Medical Corps, which gave medical care to the survivors, also confirmed their account.

About 7,500 people have been rescued off the coast of Libya since Thursday, Italian and Libyan coastguards said in a statement. Two groups of survivors told the organizations that hundreds drowned when their rubber boats began to deflate before rescuers arrived.

According to International Organization of Migration, IOM,  the number of refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea has significantly risen since the beginning of 2017. 

Flavio Di Giacomo, a Rome-based IOM spokesman told The Guardian, “Favourable weather between Friday and Sunday brought thousands of migrants attempting a sea crossing to escape the violence and abuse in Libya.” 

“Our field colleagues providing direct assistance at the harbors reported that many migrants bore signs of torture.” 

Under European Union policy, many refugees are being sent back to Libya. The conditions in Libyan detention centers have been widely criticized. Just last month, reports about migrants being sold into slavery and the rescue boats carrying refugees on the Libyan Mediterranean route colluding with smugglers came about showing the horrendous situations faced by refugees and migrants in the region.

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UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told The Guardian that he was  “profoundly shocked by the violence used by some smugglers, including the merciless killing of a young man a few days ago, which was reported to my teams by survivors.”

“The increasing numbers of passengers on board vessels used by traffickers – with an average of 100 to 150 people – are also alarming and the main cause of shipwrecks and risks are increased by the worsening quality of vessels and the increasing use of rubber boats instead of wooden ones," he added. 

Before the latest disasters, IOM registered 1,222 deaths from January 1 until 7 May on the central Mediterranean route. 181,000 refugees arrived in Italy in 2016. And an estimated 200,000 are expected to arrive in 2017. The change is also affecting Italy's political milieu ahead of the elections due next year. 

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