Three survivors of a rubber dinghy that sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya have said up to 117 other migrants were aboard at the time of the capsizing, a UN migration official said on Saturday.
It appeared to be the latest tragedy on the dangerous central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Europe.
Flavio Di Giacomo of the UN’s International Organization for Migration told Italian state TV that “unfortunately about 120” migrants were reported by survivors to have been on the overloaded smugglers’ dinghy when it was launched from Libyan shores on Thursday evening.
“After a few hours, it began sinking and people began drowning,” Di Giacomo said.
Among the missing were 10 women and two children, including a two-month-old baby, he said.
Survivors said their fellow migrants came from West African countries, including Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Gambia.
Also among the missing were Sudanese migrants, Di Giacomo said.
The survivors were plucked to safety by an Italian Navy helicopter on Friday afternoon, the navy said.
The sinking dinghy, when spotted by a navy patrol plane, had about 20 people aboard, the navy said.
The plane’s crew launched two life rafts near the dinghy, which inflated, and a navy destroyer about 100 nautical miles (185km) away dispatched a helicopter to the scene, the navy said.
The helicopter rescued the survivors, two of whom were on a life raft and the third in the water, the navy said, adding that all three were suffering from hypothermia.
They were flown to Lampedusa, an Italian island near Sicily, and treated in a hospital, Di Giacomo said.
It was not immediately clear how many migrants had fallen off the sinking dinghy before the navy plane spotted it.
The Italian Coast Guard said Libya asked a nearby cargo ship to search for survivors, but they reported that no one was found.
The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Libyan authorities as saying that a Libyan coast guard boat was dispatched to the scene, but turned back after mechanical problems.
It also quoted the authorities as saying that about 50 people were aboard the dinghy when it left Libya.
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