International

Over 700 refugees feared dead in 3 separate shipwrecks, UN says

Published

8 years ago

May 29, 2016

Over 700 refugees feared dead in 3 separate shipwrecks, UN says

The United Nations refugee agency has informed that over 700 refugees have been feared drowned in three separate shipwrecks in the last one week after attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.

William Spindler, a UNHCR spokesman for Europe, who spoke to Al Jazeera from Geneva said there had been a spate of incidents in the Mediterranean last week.

“The first one was Wednesday, which was widely reported. A boat capsised, carrying about 600 people. Some of those people are still missing,” Spindler said.

“Then there was a second incident on Thursday and a third one on Friday. In total, we fear that in these three incidents more than 700 people are missing, presumed drowned.

“There is a number of boats at the moment trying to make their way from Libya to Italy and several rescue operations are ongoing.”

Spindler said more needed to be done to stop refugees from taking to the sea in small boats.

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