Massive loss of life reported in latest Mediterranean tragedy

Reports from survivors of an overcrowded boat that sank in the Mediterranean Sea hinted to what could be one of the worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants in 2016.

If confirmed, as many as 500 people would have lost their lives when the large boat went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an unknown location between Libya and Italy. The 41 survivors – 37 men, three women and a three-year-old child – were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Kalamata, in the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece on 16 April.

The survivors told UNHCR staff that they had been part of a group of between 100 and 200 people who had departed from a locality near Tobruk in Libya.

• Primary Source

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