News Digest

Scores of migrants feared dead after fishing boat capsizes off Libya

Scores of migrants trying to reach mainland Europe are feared to have drowned off Libya, Italy’s coastguard has said. Some 700 migrants were travelling in an overcrowded fishing boat which sent out a distress call after running into difficulties some 15 nautical miles off the coast at Zuwarah. Two vessels - the MSF ship Dignity One and Irish patrol vessel Le Niamh - were immediately sent to the scene, but the boat capsized when the migrants rushed to one side of it in the expectation of being rescued. There are thought to be hundreds of people in the water.

These people are victims of violence, they are fleeing … they are running for their lives and they are risking their lives to try to find safety.

Andre Perache from Médecins Sans Frontières

Sixteen people are confirmed dead with 400 rescued. Andre Perache from Medecins Sans Frontieres charity, which has a vessel in the area, told Sky News: “What’s important about this is that it highlights the incredible dangers of this voyage that people are taking.” Nawal Soufi, an Arabic-speaking Italian based in Sicily who is often contacted by migrants in distress, said she had been phoned earlier about a boat in trouble with up to 700 people on board. “It is probably the same boat,” a coastguard spokesman said, raising fears that hundreds of people may have lost their lives.

It’s the most dangerous journey in the world.

Andre Perache