Navy spokesman says boat set off with 126 people on board and went down in high waves

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

About 100 people are feared missing after a boat sank off the coast of Libya, amid mounting evidence that already dangerous conditions are worsening for migrants crossing the Mediterranean sea to get to Europe.

General Ayoub Qassem, a spokesman for the Libyan navy, said on Thursday that a boat carrying 126 people from the port of Garabulli had sunk after being hit by high waves, and that only 20 people had been rescued.

The UN announced this week said that 2016 has become the deadliest year on record for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, with an estimated 3,800 deaths so far.

The UN refugee agencies and other aid groups have said that the already-treacherous sea journey to Italy, which is more dangerous than the route to Greece, has deteriorated, in part because people-smugglers are using even flimsier inflatable rafts than they were before. The vessels are being overloaded with people – sometimes thousands at a time – making rescues riskier and more difficult.

The UN’s grim assessment for 2016 came almost exactly three years after the death of hundreds of migrants off the coast of Italy prompted European leaders to promise “decisive measures” to stem the humanitarian crisis. At the time, a group of European interior ministers said the deaths were a “wake-up call”.

But, far from improving, the situation has got worse for migrants making the sea crossing.

In Italy, prime minister Matteo Renzi this week warned that he might veto the disbursement of European Union funds to countries that refused to help Italy and Greece, which have taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees this year.

Tough border controls along Italy’s borders with France, Austria and Switzerland mean that attempts by migrants to reach northern Europe have become more difficult and that more are staying in Italy.

“Italy cannot take another year like the one we’ve just had,” Renzi said.

The sinking off the coast of Libya on Thursday came a day after the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it had discovered 25 dead men and women in a rescue operation around 26 nautical miles from the Libyan coastline.



The dead were discovered after rescuers initially saved 139 people from a nearby rubber raft. When they returned to the scene, they found the bodies at the bottom of another boat. The likely cause of death was asphyxiation by fuel fumes.

“Sea rescue operations are becoming a race through a maritime graveyard, and our rescue teams are overwhelmed by a policy-made crisis where we feel powerless to stop the loss of life,” said Stefano Argenziano, the manager of migration operations for MSF. “How many tragedies like this do we need before EU leaders change their misplaced priority on deterrence and provide safe alternatives to the sea?”



MSF estimates that it has saved about 17,000 people since April. About 327,800 people have arrived in Europe by boat so far this year, and around 3,740 have died on the journey.

Separately, Save the Children announced that it had rescued more than 290 refugees and migrants off the coast of North Africa on Wednesday in two operations.

The aid group also recovered the bodies of 20 men and women who died before rescuers could reach them.

The group said several unaccompanied children were among the survivors, as well as pregnant women and families with small children.