Migrant boat sinks off Libya, hundreds feared dead

Migrant boat sinks off Libya, hundreds feared dead

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBPmB820xiTEALeAo7FbOU878sEgD97937LG1

 

By ABDEL MAJEED FERGANY and MAGGIE MICHAEL

 

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — An overcrowded boat packed with migrants seeking a better life in Europe capsized in the stormy Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, killing at least 21 and leaving 200 missing and feared dead four days after the accident, officials said Tuesday.

 

The boat, which a Libyan police official said had a capacity of just 50, overturned Friday in high winds with about 250 on board. Pictures showed six drowned bodies pulled from the water and stretched out among piles of nets and frayed ropes on the deck of a fishing boat that took part in the rescue. […]

 

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Migrants drown off Libyan coast

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/03/200933111143400931.html

 

At least 23 people were rescued when the boats capsized in high winds [AFP]

 

At least 21 people have drowned and 213 more are missing presumed dead after three Europe-bound boats sank in separate incidents, the International Organisation for Migration says.

 

The boats sank off the coast of Libya and were carrying migrants to Italy, IOM officials said on Tuesday.

 

"A boat with 257 migrants on board sank on Sunday off the coast of Libya. Twenty-three people were saved and 21 bodies were retrieved", Laurence Hart, the IOM chief of mission in Tripoli, Libya's capital, told the AFP news agency.

 

An earlier IOM toll out of the organisation's Geneva headquarters put the number of missing at 300. […]