Migrant Boat Capsizes in Mediterranean, Many Feared Dead

The crew of the Dignity I said there had been “many deaths”.

Coastguard Commander Filippo Marini said the rescue operation involved seven ships and that survivors indicated that between 400 and 600 people were aboard the smugglers’ boat.

The UN Refugee Agency’s chief spokeswoman Melissa Fleming says that 600 people were aboard the boat, with “100 in the hull”.

The exact number of those aboard might never be known, but authorities hope to have a better idea after survivors are interviewed.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) ship M/V Dignity One, and the Irish Navy patrol vessel Le Niamh as well as three other vessels were dispatched on the rescue mission.

Rai said a major rescue operation was underway with several rafts and buoys thrown in the water as many migrants fleeing North African poverty and unrest-stricken nations are unable to swim.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost their lives, the survivors and the rescuers for whom this is an extremely hard operation”, the minister said. “However, the vessel capsized”. “The crew of the Niamh are working flat out with their counterparts to rescue as many as possible”.

In a statement last night, Amnesty worldwide said European governments must do more to provide safe and legal ways for people in need of protection to enter the EU rather than risking their lives at sea in their thousands.

The incident is understood to have happened about 25 miles off the Libyan coast after the boat left from the city of Zuwara in the north-west of the country early this morning.

It had set out from Zuwarah, close to the Tunisian border.

Lauren adds, “More than 2,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year”. Italy took in 170,000 in 2014.

In April, a 20-metre (66-foot) vessel capsized as it approached a merchant ship that had come to its assistance, making it the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean for decades and a symbol of Europe’s long-running migrant crisis. Only 28 people, including two alleged smugglers, survived.

If it is determined that hundreds were crammed in the hold of the iron fishing boat that overturned Wednesday, there is a real risk that numerous migrants died trapped inside, said Flavio Di Giacomo of the worldwide Organization for Migration, a human rights group.