A number of children and pregnant women were among the 240 people reported to have drowned off the coast of Libya while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea last week, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
In a statement, a UNICEF official, Ms. Helena Rodriguez, said: “It is an awful incident”.
Ms. Rodriguez, a gynaecologist and cultural mediator working with Italian health workers to rescue survivors on Italian island of Lampedusa, said a young Liberian woman lost her two-year-old son, 13-year-old daughter and 21-year-old brother, all of whom drowned when their boat capsized.
She said: “The tragedy has left this young woman in a state of deep shock after she saw her children and her young brother drown in front of her.
“Even though she had paid smugglers US$2,400 for her family to make the crossing from Libya to Italy, when she and others saw the completely unseaworthy boat, they refused to get in because they were afraid. But the smugglers shot at them and forced them to go.
“Smugglers shot at them and forced them to go. This is why so many people drowned just 12 kilometers from the Libyan shore. The Liberian woman, one of 29 survivors brought to the island, is also suffering from acute pneumonia.”
According to the official, two other women who were saved by the same Norwegian rescue vessel also lost their children at sea, and most of the victims were from Senegal, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria.
Ms. Rodriguez also noted that those rescued were in difficult physical and psychological condition upon arrival, with some in a coma and others suffering from severe burns due to exposure to engine fuel.
UNICEF stated that 2016 is set to be the deadliest year on record for the Mediterranean with more than 4,200 refugees and migrants having died attempting the dangerous journey across the sea. Nearly 160,000 have arrived to Italy by sea so far this year.
Source PANA
