As many as 500 people may have lost their lives when a large ship sunk in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere between Libya and Italy earlier this month, according to the UN refugee agency.
On Tuesday, UNHCR staff interviewed 41 survivors of what they say could be one of the “worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants in the last 12 months”. The survivors, who include 23 Somalis, 11 Ethiopians, six Egyptians and a Sudanese person, were rescued on 16th April but may have drifted for several days before that.
They were among a group of up to 200 people who had departed Syria last week on a 30 metre boat. They were being transferred to a larger boat out at sea when the larger vessel capsized. Of the 41 survivors, 37 were men, three were women and there was also a three-year-old child.
Pope Francis, who recently visited migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, expressed his deepest sorrow over the sinking.
“These are men and women like us who seek a better life,” he was reported as saying. “Hungry, persecuted, injured, exploited, victims of wars. They were looking for happiness.”
UNHCR said on Wednesday that at least 179,552 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe by sea so far this year and that at least 761 have died or gone missing making the journey.
