Reports suggest that up to 170 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean in two incidents involving dinghies that left from Libya and Morocco this weekend.
By Nathan Morley
The tragedy is all too familiar – their inflatable dinghy sank after the sheer weight of those squeezed on board lead it to capsize.
According to media reports, an Italian military pilot spotted one dinghy sinking in rough seas on Friday. Soon after, the plane dropped two safety rafts into the water but had to leave due to a shortage of petrol. Then, a naval helicopter rescued three people who were suffering from severe hypothermia.
The survivors said they had left Libya as part of a group of 120 people, mainly from Africa. They also told how the boats started to sink 10 hours into their journey, resulting in countless deaths – a follow up rescue operation failed to find survivors.
Hundreds of people have already lost their lives in recent months in almost identical circumstances.
People traffickers illegally moving migrants and refugees, remains a lucrative business in Libya. In the second incident, 53 migrants who left Morocco on a dinghy in the western Mediterranean are missing, according to a Spanish non-governmental organisation.
