An estimated 300 people are feared dead after
attempting to reach Italy from Libya in three
inflatable rafts, the UN refugee agency said
after speaking to survivors rescued by Italy's
coastguard in the past few days.
An Italian tug boat rescued nine people who
had been on two different boats on Monday
and brought them to the Italian island of
Lampedusa on Wednesday morning.
They are the only known survivors from their
two boats, leaving more than 200
unaccounted for, they told the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
officials, according to a tweet by Carlotta
Sami, the UNHCR spokesperson for Southern
Europe.
Three boats, each carrying about 100 people,
are missing, according to interviews with
survivors from two of the boats, Barbara
Molinario, another UNCHR official, told the
Reuters news agency.
The three boats had left Libya together with
an additional one from which the coastguard
picked up 105 people on Sunday in extreme
sea conditions and with the temperature
hovering just a few degrees above zero,
witnesses said.
Twenty-nine from that boat reportedly died of
hypothermia in the 18 hours it took the
coastguard to ferry them to Italy.
Several thousand people have died trying to
make the perilous crossing from North Africa
to Europe across the Mediterranean in the last
year alone.
Italy's made a decision last year to end a full-
scale search-and-rescue mission, known as
Mare Nostrum, due to concerns over costs.
Source: Reuters
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