Libyan refugee boat capsizes killing 41 in the Mediterranean

AT LEAST 41 people drowned in the Mediterranean after a boat capsized sailing from Libya to Italy last week, the UN’S refugee and migration agencies said yesterday, calling for co-ordinated action by European countries to address the migration emergency.

The boat carrying 120 people capsized two days after it left Libya on Feb 18. Its passengers included six women, one of whom was pregnant, and four children, the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR said.

Survivors say the dinghy started to take on water about 15 hours in. At least six people died after falling into the water, while two others tried to swim to a boat in the distance and drowned.

After about three hours, a rescue vessel approached the dinghy to help the passengers but many more people lost their lives in the difficult operation, the organisations reported, without supplying details.

Only one body was recovered and those missing include three children and four women, one of whom left behind a newborn baby.

“Saving the lives of refugees and migrants in distress in the Mediterranean must once again become a priority for the EU and the international community,” the agencies said.

Meanwhile, an eight-months pregnant Afghan refugee is due to appear in court today accused of setting herself and her tent on fire in a camp on the Greek island of Lesvos on Sunday.

The 26-year-old, unhappy at not being allowed to relocate to Germany, took her two children out of her tent, walked back inside it and started a fire, the ministry of migration told The Daily

Telegraph. She suffered minor burns.