- No fewer than 21 migrants have gone missing and had probably drowned after two boats set off from Libya for Italy
- The 21 people missing were among the 51 on one of the boats, a wooden one
- 132 other people on the second boat, a rubber dinghy, had been rescued
The International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday, March 6, that 21 migrants were missing, and had probably drowned, after two boats, a rubber dinghy and a wooden boat, set off from Libya for Italy and had to be rescued.
IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a news conference in Geneva that 132 other people on the rubber dinghy had been rescued.
Late on Monday, March 5, SOS Mediterranee said there was one pregnant woman and 14 children with no family among the survivors. The organisation said they come mostly from West Africa.
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The migrants were first rescued on March 3 by a Cypriot merchant ship, and handed over to SOS Mediterranee late on Saturday. Thirty were on a sinking wooden boat, and according to survivors, 21 people died in that shipwreck.
“There were five women on board, four drowned, including a pregnant one. One lost my brother,” a Gambian man was quoted as saying by SOS Mediterranee.
Most migrants are desperate not to be returned to Libya, where they face widespread abuse and torture.
According to SOS Mediterranee, the Libyan coastguard picked up about 90 people from the dinghy.
The Mediterranean is the world’s most dangerous sea migration route.
According to an earlier report by NAIJ.com, Libya’s navy reported on Tuesday, February 20, that its coast guard recently rescued 441 migrants in two separate operations as their boats drifted off the western coast.
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In the report by the navy, 35 women and 16 children were among the 324 illegal migrants rescued in one of the operations on Monday, February 19, with assistance from a fishing boat.
The report said that the migrants were from Chad, Nigeria, Mali and Libya. The coastguard also saved 117 migrants, including five women and two babies, off the coast of Zawiya, west of the capital Tripoli, The Libya Observer reports.
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Source: Naija.ng