MIGRANT BOAT WAS 'DELIBERATELY SUNK' IN MEDITERRANEAN SEA, KILLING 500 (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Monday, September 15, 2014, 14:01

A picture released by the Italian navy shows migrants being rescued off the coast of Sicily. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

About 500 migrants are feared to have drowned after the boat carrying them from Egypt to Malta was apparently deliberately sunk by people-traffickers, an intergovernmental group has said.

The news – based on the accounts of two Palestinian survivors – emerged on the same day up to 200 more people were feared dead when another boat heading to Europe capsized off Libya.

The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said there was no independent verification for what happened, mainly because only nine people are believed to have survived. The IOM's account comes from the two Palestinians, who were rescued by another boat and taken to Sicily.

If the men's account is correct, by the IOM's tally about 2,900 migrants have died this year so far in the Mediterranean while attempting to reach Africa, against 700 for all of 2013.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/migrant-boat-capsizes-egypt-malta-traffickers