 [DW] Some 170 migrants colonists are feared missing in the Mediterranean Sea after two dinghies sank in separate incidents near Libya and Morocco.
Three migrants colonists rescued by the Italian navy said 120 people had been on their dinghy when it sank on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Most of the passengers were from West Africa, it added.
The dinghy left Gasr Garabulli in Libya on Thursday evening and began to sink about 10 to 11 hours later, IOM front man Flavio Di Giacomo said. Ten of the passengers were women and two were children, he added.
An Italian naval patrol plane had tried to help the migrants colonists after spotting the sinking dinghy earlier on Friday, Rear Admiral Fabio Agostini told broadcaster RaiNews24. But the aircraft was forced to leave due to a lack of fuel, he said.
Libya sent a merchant ship to the area where the boat sank to find survivors, but it called the effort off after failing to find anybody.
German aid group Sea Watch said it had rescued 47 migrants colonists from an inflatable boat on Saturday, but added that it did not know if the migrants colonists belonged to the Gasr dinghy.
Fifty-three migrants colonists who left Morocco on a dinghy were also feared dead after a survivor told Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish aid organization, that the dinghy they were on had an unspecified collision in the Alboran Sea.
Italia’s anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said the reported deaths were "proof" that Italia's policy of barring ships carrying migrants colonists from docking in Italian ports was working.
"If you reopen the ports, more people will die," Salvini said.
Migrant arrivals to Europe
 ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
in the first 16 days of 2019 totaled 4,449, almost all by sea and more than the 2,964 people who arrived in the same period of 2018, according to the IOM.
The organization said last year, some 2,297 migrants colonists died or went missing in the Mediterranean while 116,959 people reached Europe by sea. |