More than 80 migrants are feared to have drowned in a shipwreck late last week close to the Libyan coast, less than two weeks after hundreds of migrants are believed to have died on the Libya-to-Italy route, WSJ reported, citing an aid agency.
“According to the testimonies gathered by the International Organization for Migration in Lampedusa 84 people went missing,” IOM spokesman Flavio di Giacomo wrote in a tweet.
The Italian Coast Guard said Saturday that 26 survivors were rescued the night between Friday and Saturday from an Italian mercantile ship around 4 miles off the Libyan coast after they had launched a distress call. Two vessels then took them to the island of Lampedusa.
The route from Libya to Italy was overshadowed last summer by the surge in migrants trying to reach Europe by crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands, but the shipwrecks of recent weeks have refocused attention on the southern Mediterranean route.
The far greater distance and bigger boats have made the Libya-to-Italy route deadlier.
The EU expanded its naval patrols in the Mediterranean last year in another bid at deterrence, but critics say they remain inadequate.
The IOM said on Wednesday that total migrant arrivals to Italy from the North African coast since the beginning of the year had surpassed last year’s figure over the same period by roughly 800, reaching a total of around 27,000.
Since Wednesday, the Coast Guard said it has rescued 874 migrants attempting the crossing to Italy’s southern coast.