170 migrants feared dead after two shipwrecks in Mediterranean

At least 170 people are feared dead after they went missing from two separate shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea which departed from Libya and Morocco.

The UNHCR said rescue vessels from Moroccan and Spanish rescue have searched for the boat and survivors “for several days to no avail.”

Meanwhile, the non-governmental organization Sea Watch said in a statement Saturday night that there were only three survivors from a shipwreck in the central Mediterranean. “They say they left Libya on an inflatable dinghy with 120 people. There are 117 people dying or missing,” head of the Sea Watch Mission, Kim Heaton-Heather said.

Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini closed the country’s ports to migrant boats in June and the populist government has passed new anti-immigrant laws.

[CNN]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.