Tripoli:
Two boats carrying hundreds of passengers were capsized in a 24-hour period in
the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy, possibly leaving dozens of
refugees dead, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Barbara
Molinario, public information officer at the UNHCR’s Italian branch,
said rescue operations are complicated by the large volume of passengers
on the vessels carrying refugees and migrants. “Usually nobody really knows the
exact number of people on a boat like that,” she said. “We are now waiting
for the survivors to come so we can talk to them. That’s going to be the
only way to know there are people missing,” Molinario further added.
The
Italian coastguard released images of a shipwreck a day earlier, in which at
least five people died when the boat went over off the coast of Libya.
The
blue fishing vessel, its deck heaving with people, tipped over on Wednesday
after passengers rushed to one side on spotting a rescue ship. Those on the
boat, many of them men, some already wearing orange lifejackets as a
precaution, were captured in rare photographs as they clung to the boat’s rails
or each other, or dropped into the sea.
Some
are seen hanging on to the starboard edge by their fingertips as the trawler
rolls, while others tried to balance on the rim.
Pictures
taken seconds later show the waters around the boat filled with people trying
to get away from the vessel which, now overturned, begins to sink, with people
still perched on its upturned hull.
The
navy said 562 people had been pulled to safety. The operation wound up late on
Wednesday without finding any further survivors or victims. Those on board had
sounded the alarm by calling for help using a satellite phone some 18 nautical
miles off Libya. The Bettica went on to save another 108 refugees and migrants
from their dilapidated vessel in a second rescue operation on Wednesday.
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