Mata(INO)-At least 200 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said Wednesday.
The incident happened off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Survivors coming ashore Wednesday reported that another rubber boat was unaccounted for, the agency said, adding that the death toll could rise.
Carlotta Sami, the UNHCR’s spokeswoman in Italy, said at least 203 people had been “swallowed up by the waves.”
At least 29 people died from hypothermia Monday off Lampedusa in what the agency said was the first major maritime loss of life this year. They were travelling from north Africa to Italy’s coast.
The agency called on the European Union to beef up search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean following Monday’s deaths.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday: ‘While we applaud all involved in the rescue effort — which took place in high seas and poor weather conditions and resulted in 106 lives being saved — this is an example of why it was felt important in October 2013, following tragedies that occurred then, to underline the need for a much more effective and improved rescue capacity in the Mediterranean to cope with the scale of the problem.”
He said a significantly higher number of migrants tried to cross the sea on smugglers’ boats in the first few weeks of 2015, compared with the same period last year.
More than 218,000 people crossed the Mediterranean through irregular routes last year and about 3,500 people died trying, the agency said.
Idale News Online/English News Desk, Muqdisho.
