According to the U.S. Refugee Agency, over 700 migrants are feared to have perished after a failed attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Over the course of three days in three separate tragedies, migrants attempting to flee Libya to Europe have drowned while on boats. The vessels, usually cheaply crafted, have been capsizing and leaving hundreds dead as a result.
On Wednesday, migrants drowned inside of a fishing boat, as they all rushed to one side of the boat when they saw a rescue ship approaching. During another fateful shipwreck on Thursday, a boat filled with migrants was being pulled by a larger boat and sank when the rope that was connecting the two was cut.
In an interview with NPR, UNCHR spokesperson William Spindler said that over 550 people may have died in the tragedy. In a separate incident, 45 bodies were retrieved by the Coast Guard.
According to the United Nations, over 40,000 have attempted to migrate from Libya to Italy or Greece, since 2016. The agency also stated that this week’s death toll is the highest it’s been since April 2015.
Of the migrants rescued in the three boats, they are believed to hail from African countries such as Nigeria, Gambia, Somalia, Ivory Coast and Guinea. These tragedies now raise the death toll in the Mediterranean to more than 2,000 people this year, according to the Associated Press.
Even for survivors of these tragedies, many still may experience a bleak future. The refugee camps set up for migrants in awaiting European countries are often seen as deplorable living conditions and overcrowded.
In an interview, Doctors Without Borders Medical Coordinator in Greece, Dr. Lamia Bezer stated:
“The places where the camps have been set up are all in industrial areas. All these areas are not supposed to be residential areas. They are not really fit to be hosting thousands of people. The ones that we visited are definitely overcrowded. Hygienic conditions are extremely poor, to the point they can actually put at risk the health of people,” she said.
Bezer went on to say that there are “piles of waste” in areas where migrants live and that proper planning could have avoided this.
Migrants are fleeing Libya and Syria in droves in an attempt to escape from the horrific and cruel human rights violations including rape, abductions, and torture. Thousands have fled to secure safety and a new life for themselves and their children. Stories of migrants and their reasons for fleeing their home country were told by CNN.
