Somali refugees are reportedly among more than 250 people those are feared to have drowned after small migrant boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday morning.
Officials of the International Organization for Migration IOM said the accident happened in the early hours of Wednesday after a vessel from unrest Libya and carrying 300 African refugees sank about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off Lampedusa.
It is reported that the refugees are from Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Chad and Sudan.
Only 50 survivors had been found by Italian coast guard forces, the Italian media reported today.
The boat sank during rough seas as the small boat was carrying more than its capacity.
IOM officials reported that the migrants included at least 40 women and 5 young children.
The surviving migrants are now held at Loran base, a facility where the Italian authorities are sheltering migrants coming from Libya.
African migrants traveling to Italy had been increasing since February after the outbreak of Libya uprising which coerced many refugees to flee to a safety countries.
More than 2,000 mostly African migrants and asylum seekers have landed on the island after having sailed from the Libyan coast, officials confirmed.
Hundreds of Somali refugees in Libya were taken to Sudan and Egypt after Somalia transitional federal government appealed to the Arab League.
RBC Radio
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