Over 90 migrants killed in Mediterranean boat accident: UN

Geneva: Nearly 100 migrants died in the Mediterranean waters after the boat carrying them from Libya got shipwrecked, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.

“More than 90 people have died in another Mediterranean tragedy. Europe has proven its ability to host 4 million refugees from Ukraine generously and effectively. It must now urgently consider how to apply this to other refugees and migrants knocking, in distress, at its doors,” Grandi said on Twitter on Sunday.

More than 90 people have died in another Mediterranean tragedy.

Europe has proven its ability to host 4 million refugees from Ukraine generously and effectively.

It must now urgently consider how to apply this to other refugees and migrants knocking, in distress, at its doors. https://t.co/1J678B8iqw

— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) April 3, 2022

The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) aid group said on Twitter that the overcrowded boat carrying migrants left Libya “many days ago.” “The commercial tanker Alegria 1 rescued the only 4 survivors early this morning. We know from our initial contact with Alegria 1 that the survivors reported being at sea for at least four days on a boat with nearly 100 people on board,” MSF said on Twitter on Saturday.

The aid group urged coordination centers in Rome and Malta to assign a safe place for surviving migrants.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in its annual report earlier this year that about 1,864 migrants died or disappeared in 2021 compared to 1,401 in 2020.

In recent years, the EU has been struggling with an ongoing migration crisis as people try to cross the Mediterranean, fleeing poverty and war in Africa and the Middle East. Numerous organizations and human rights groups have been engaged in the effort to rescue migrants stranded at sea and to bring them to Europe.