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| Dozens missing after migrant boat sinks in Mediterranean, says Libyan navy | Dozens missing after migrant boat sinks in Mediterranean, says Libyan navy |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The Libyan navy has said 97 people are missing after a migrant boat sank off the country’s coast. | The Libyan navy has said 97 people are missing after a migrant boat sank off the country’s coast. |
| General Ayoub Qassem, a navy spokesman in Tripoli, said a survivor had told his rescuers that the boat had set off from Garabulli with 126 people onboard and went down after being battered by high waves. Qassem said 20 people had been rescued. | General Ayoub Qassem, a navy spokesman in Tripoli, said a survivor had told his rescuers that the boat had set off from Garabulli with 126 people onboard and went down after being battered by high waves. Qassem said 20 people had been rescued. |
| On Wednesday the French aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said it had found the bodies of 29 people who died in a pool of fuel and seawater on a crowded dinghy off Libya, probably from suffocation, skin burns or drowning. | On Wednesday the French aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said it had found the bodies of 29 people who died in a pool of fuel and seawater on a crowded dinghy off Libya, probably from suffocation, skin burns or drowning. |
| According to the UN, a record 3,800 people have died this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. | |
| In 2016 people have had a one in 88 chance of dying, compared to one death for every 269 arrivals in 2015. Officials said the changing risks reflected different migration patterns and greater use of flimsy, overloaded boats. | |
| While there has been a reduction in people crossing the eastern Mediterranean to Greece, numbers of migrants taking the central route from north Africa to Italy are almost unchanged since last year.In 2016 people have had a one in 88 chance of dying, compared to one death for every 269 arrivals in 2015. Officials said the changing risks reflected different migration patterns and greater use of flimsy, overloaded boats. | |
| While there has been a reduction in people crossing the eastern Mediterranean to Greece, numbers of migrants taking the central route from north Africa to Italy are almost unchanged since last year. | |
| The central Mediterranean route has always been a riskier option. UNHCR officials highlighted the changing tactics of people smugglers, who were using “flimsy inflatable rafts that often do not last the journey”, they said, as well as overloading boats, sometimes with thousands of people at a time. | |
| “This may be to do with the shifting smuggler business model or geared towards lowering detection risks, but it also makes the work of rescuers harder,” the UNHCR said. |