15 refugees missing in Mediterranean Sea
The UN refugee agency says at least 15 asylum-seekers have gone missing in an incident during which their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea, the second such incident in a day.
According to Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who was speaking on Sunday, a boat carrying around 120 people sank early Friday four hours after leaving the eastern coast of Libya for Italy.
Some 15 people went missing, most of them from Africa, Sami added.
Survivors from the incident were being disembarked in Pozzallo, Sicily, according to Sami, who also said that eight people had been taken straight to hospital “due to their serious health conditions.”
The news came a day after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 26 people had been rescued from an inflatable boat that was carrying around 110 refugees off Libya in a separate accident on Friday.
The refugees rescued had been reportedly transferred to two coastguard vessels and taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The rest reportedly perished.
Large numbers of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa have died over the past months while trying to reach Europe via sea routes.
Over 183,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, while over 1,200 people died in their journey to the continent, according to the latest figures by the IOM.
Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East.
Many blame support by some Western countries for militants operating in the Middle East as the main reason behind the departure of the refugees from their home countries.
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