(MENAFN) Around 180 people are presumed to have died in the first major migrant boat disaster of 2017 in the Mediterranean, officials said Tuesday after interviewing a handful of survivors.
In detail, humanitarian workers from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), recounted harrowing details of a capsize that occurred on Saturday in waters off Libya after talking to four rescued passengers, two Eritreans and two Ethiopians.
Moreover, the survivors, three men and one woman, arrived on Monday evening in the Sicilian port of Trapani, in a "traumatised and exhausted" state, aid workers said.
They said their two-tier, wooden boat had left Libya on Friday with more than 180 people packed on board, all of them originally from East Africa.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.