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| Scores dead as migrant boats sink off Libya, survivors tell UN | Scores dead as migrant boats sink off Libya, survivors tell UN |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Scores of people have died in two migrant boat shipwrecks off Libya, according to survivors’ accounts given to the United Nations. | |
| Survivors brought ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa told the UN that at least 240 people were missing or dead, said Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR. | |
| Sami said 29 people survived the first wreck, reporting that about 120 people had gone missing. In a separate operation, two women found swimming at sea told rescuers another 120 people had died in the second wreck. | |
| In both cases, most of the people on board appeared to have been sub-Saharan Africans, but Sami said aid workers were still ascertaining details. | |
| Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said 4,220 lives had now been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year. | Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said 4,220 lives had now been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year. |
| The UN refugee agencies and other aid groups have said that the already-treacherous sea journey to Italy, which is more dangerous than the route to Greece, has deteriorated, in part because people-smugglers are using even flimsier inflatable rafts than they were before. The vessels are being overloaded with people – sometimes thousands at a time – making rescues riskier and more difficult. | |
| More details soon … | More details soon … |