Several hundred migrants feared dead in Mediterranean on anniversary of Lampedusa tragedy

Several hundred people appear to have died in a new migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean, Italian President Sergio Mattarella has said.

Unconfirmed media reports earlier spoke of up to 400 victims from boats which capsized near the Egyptian coast as they attempted to sail to Europe.

Mr Mattarella said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died".

He did not give any further details.

Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials have been unable to confirm the deaths.

In a separate incident, six bodies were recovered and 108 migrants were rescued from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy, Italy's coast guard said, as boat arrivals accelerate amid calm seas.

A private rescue ship called Aquarius run by humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee found the bodies on the rubber dingy yesterday, a coast guard spokesman said.

Five women were among those rescued. The coast guard had no details about the nationality of the migrants.

The migrants and the six corpses are being taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the coast guard said.

Italy's coast guard had earlier rescued 33 migrants from a small island off the eastern coast of Sicily on Sunday.

Almost 6,000 migrants and refugees sailed from Libya to Italy last week in what appears the start of a wave of at least 100,000 and "possibly many, many more" this year, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Meanwhile, on the first anniversary of the death of 800 migrants off Lampedusa, Oxfam has accused the EU of failing to protect people seeking refuge in Europe...
  rte.ie
18/4/6
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Related:

• Lampedusa