More Than 700 Refugees Drowned in the Mediterranean Last Week
19 October 2018 19:14 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More than 700 refugees from Africa and the Middle East are suspected to have drowned after their boats sank after encountering engine problems throughout last week, said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in a statement released on Monday, September 15, 2014.
IOM has estimated that around 3,000 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of the year, as quoted by Reuters.
One of the worst incident happened last week, when a boat carrying around 500 refugees operated by a human-trafficking ring ran aground at a beach on Malta's coast. The incident only came to light after two out of the nine survivors of the incident gave their testimonies to authorities.
The survivors said that they were ordered to jump ships in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea - an order which the refugees refused. The refusal culminated into a fight, which only ended when an unidentified individual crashed the boat to shore, said IOM's spokesperson Christiane Berthiaume to Reuters in Geneva.
"Around 500 people were on that boat - most came from Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Sudan. There had hoped to seek asylum in Europe," said Berthiaume.
"The latest incident brings the total number of drowning victims in the Mediterranean to 700 - the worst series of accidents in the area thus far," she elaborated.
The ship had set sail from Egypt with around 500 people on Saturday, September 6, 2014, and ran aground on Malta's coast on September 10, 2014. Only nine survivors have been found as per Friday, said Berthiaume.
Two survivors from Palestine have been brought to Sicily, Italy for further processing, while the remaining seven were transported to Malta and Crete, Greece.
Previously on Sunday evening, a spokesperson for Libya's Navy reported that a vessel carrying 250 refugees from Africa sank in Libya's territorial waters. The majority of the refugees is suspected to have died in the incident.
ANTARANEWS