"We are very concerned about what is happening in the Mediterranean Sea, where we are learning of many deaths due to capsized boats," Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), told a news briefing on Tuesday.
"The full death toll unfortunately is unknown to us," she added.
In one of the latest tragedies, migrants who arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa at the weekend told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) they had seen a ship carrying between 500 to 600 people sinking near Tripoli late last week.
It is unclear how many of those drowned.
Even before that incident, Fleming said the UNHCR believed that from March 25, at least 800 people fleeing Libya did not make it safely to shore.
Most of the migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN officials
No comments:
Post a Comment