Italian Navy Recovers 60 More Bodies of Migrants from Libya

 

 

The Italian navy on Monday, September 7, recovered another 60 bodies from a boat that sank on the way from Libya to Italy.

 

The boat capsized on April 18th with more than 800 migrants and refugees on board,

 

The accident has been described as the worst-ever Mediterranean migration accident.

 

Just after the accident, rescuers found 24 bodies floating at sea and 28 survivors, who said hundreds had died trapped inside the sunken boat.

 

The Navy said the 60 bodies, bringing to 118 the total number extracted from the wreck in recent months, would be brought to the Sicilian port of Augusta later on Monday.

 

The migrants’ vessel was located in early May about 157 km north-east of the Libyan coast and 375 metres below sea level.

 

In a separate development, the death toll from the last week’s accident in which a wooden boat crammed with scores of people capsized in the Malacca Strait off Malaysia has risen to 61, according to reports.

 

The deceased are mostly men, but also include one toddler and several women, according to Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).

 

MMEA dispatched patrol boats from the Klang Maritime District to the scene after local fishermen spotted the capsized boat off Sabak Bernam in the morning hours of Thursday, September 3, and alerted the authorities.