25 dead after migrant boat capsizes off Libya
At least 25 people have lost their lives after a boat carrying some 600 migrants, including women and children, capsized off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the wooden boat had capsized on Wednesday, after it reportedly made a distress call received in Italy over rough weather about 15 miles off the Libyan coast.
The Irish Le Niamh rescue boat and the MSF-operated Dignity I vessel, along with other ships and a helicopter, were dispatched to the area. However, the boats received calls and rescued another 94 people on their way to the first boat.
The MFS said the first boat had already capsized upon their arrival.
“It was a horrific sight, people desperately clinging to lifebelts, boats and anything they could to, fighting for their lives, amidst people drowning, and those who had already died,” project coordinator on the Dignity I, Juan Matías, said.
The group warned that there was a “severe lack of resources” available for rescue operations.
“The fact that we were first called to assist this boat and then shortly afterwards sent to another one highlights the severe lack of resources available for rescue operations,” Matías said.
This is considered to be the worst since some 800 people died in a single incident off the Libyan coast, in April.
Meanwhile, some 400 migrants have recently been rescued off the coast of Libya.
This year, more than 2,000 people have died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 188,000 migrants have been rescued in the Mediterranean this year so far.
The development comes as Italy is trying to host nearly 100,000 migrants who have traveled to the Mediterranean to escape war, persecution or poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
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