Status: 04/04/2022 10:11
Once again there was a disaster involving a refugee boat in the Mediterranean. Nearly 100 migrants drowned after their overcrowded boat capsized, according to UNHCR. People wanted to go from Libya to Europe.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR and Doctors Without Borders, dozens of people drowned in the Mediterranean when a refugee boat sank.
“More than 90 people died in another tragedy in the Mediterranean,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on Twitter.
four people saved
According to Doctors Without Borders, a commercial tanker truck rescued four survivors from a lifeboat on Saturday. Those rescued reported that they had been on a boat with nearly 100 people on board for at least four days. 96 people drowned.
Boat came from Libya
The overcrowded boat had left Libya for Europe. The survivors “urgently need protection and care”, said MSF. The organization demanded that they not be returned to Libya. “None of the survivors should be returned to a place where they risk imprisonment, abuse and ill-treatment.”
Libya is a major transit country for migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East who wish to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. If people are sent back to the crisis-stricken country of North Africa, they are housed in internment camps.
Pope: “Shipwreck of Civilization”
The accident became known over the weekend when Pope Francis in Malta expressed clear criticism of the treatment of refugees in the Mediterranean. On Sunday, the head of the Catholic Church encountered migrants during his visit to the island and spoke of a “shipwreck of civilization”. He urged Europe to better share the burden and not leave countries like Malta alone.
Human rights activists also repeatedly criticize conditions in the centres. Grandi urged the EU to act: “Europe has shown that it is capable of generously and effectively hosting four million refugees from Ukraine,” he said. Now it urgently needs to think about how to apply this to other refugees and migrants in need.