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Six migrants dead, dozens missing at sea after boat capsized off Libya's coast

Xinhua, April 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Six migrants were found dead and dozens were feared missing at sea after the Italian coastal guard launched an operation to save people following the capsizing of a boat with 400 migrants off the coast of Libya late on Sunday, local media said on Monday.

Coastal guard sources quoted by ANSA news agency said a difficult search and rescue operation carried out some 20 miles off Libya amid strong winds and waves saved 108 people, including a few women, from a boat headed towards Italy.

Among the survivors were migrants from several African countries, la Repubblica newspaper said. One of them reportedly told rescuers there were a total of 135 people on the boat.

Media on Monday reported that over 400 migrants, most of them Somalis, heading from Egypt towards Italy aboard four boats also went missing at sea.

"There is truly a need to think, and the umpteenth tragedy in the Mediterranean today reminds us of this," Italian President Sergio Mattarella was quoted as saying by Rai state television commenting on Monday's reports.

In the past days, the Italian coastal guard has managed the rescue of thousands of migrants in the central Mediterranean.

Local reports said the European Commission on Monday welcomed an Italian proposal for a new approach to dealing with asylum seekers, which envisages a framework agreement with countries of origin and transit and a financial commitment by the European Union.

Italian officials have warned that the recent closure of the so-called Balkan route might force migrants and asylum seekers to try other ways to reach Europe.

Up to April 11, some 19,934 people have arrived by sea to Italy this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. At least 716 people were also reported dead or missing up to the same date.

There have been over 173,700 arrivals by sea in Europe since January 2016, and 55 percent of them were women and children, the UNHCR added. The vast majority originated from war-torn Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Enditem