Around 500 feared dead in migrant shipwreck

Migrants rescued from a small boat in the Mediterranean told the UN refugee agency they had witnessed a shipwreck that claimed 500 lives, a UNHCR spokeswoman says.

The 41 survivors from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt described seeing “a large shipwreck that took place in the Mediterranean Sea claiming the lives of approximately 500 people,” Carlotta Sami says in a statement sent to AFP.

Reports of the drownings have circulated among families and on social media but remained unconfirmed by coast guard authorities in Italy, Greece, Libya and Egypt.

Somalia’s state radio quoted the Somali Embassy in Egypt in reporting the incident.

A joint Somali statement from the president, prime minister and speaker of parliament on Tuesday said 400 migrants, mostly Somalis, drowned in the capsizing in the Mediterranean.

But the Somali information minister later said 200 drowned and still other reports after that said even fewer had drowned.

“It’s a painful tragedy which reminds us all how important it is for us to discourage our youth from embarking on such high risk journeys,” the statement said.

— Agencies