Around 250 African migrants are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean after a rescue boat found two partially submerged rubber dinghies off libya, a spokeswoman for the NGO which operates the vessel said on Thursday.
A rescue boat found two partially submerged rubber dinghies off libya, a spokeswoman for the NGO which operates the vessel said. laura lanuza of Spanish charity Pro-Activa Open Arms said its boat had recovered five floating corpses close to the dinghies, about 15 miles off the libyan coast.
“We don’t think there can be any other explanation than that these dinghies would have been full of people,” she told AFP, adding they would typically have been carrying 120-140 migrants each.
The ship is one of many filled with migrant refugees most likely headed for Europe that have capsized leaving many dead and missing. By the end of 2016 more than 4,000 men, women and children have died in the Mediterranean, according to international organizations, as Europe continues to struggle with its worst migration crisis since World War II.