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More than 300 migrants died this week trying to reach Italy: U.N. agency

11 February 2015 19:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. More than 300 people died attempting to cross the sea from Africa to Italy this week, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday, adding pressure on Europe to expand a border operation that does not have a clear mandate to save lives, APA reports quoting .

The high number of deaths, including 29 people who died of hypothermia on the deck of an Italian coast guard boat hours after being pulled from the water, has re-ignited criticism of Italy's decision last year to end a full-scale search and rescue mission.

Among the latest incidents, an Italian tug boat rescued nine people, the only known survivors from two boats that sank, and brought them to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday. More than 200 people remain unaccounted for.

Those two boats were part of a four-boat flotilla that left a beach near Libya's capital Tripoli on Saturday, said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Italy.

A third boat, carrying an estimated 100 migrants, is still missing, survivors said. A 12-year-old boy is among the missing, most of them young African men. The Italian coast guard picked up 105 people on Sunday from the fourth boat, 29 of whom subsequently died of cold while on deck on the journey to shore.

"We know what fate we are going towards and the probability of dying ... But it is a sacrifice we consciously make to have a future," one survivor told International Organization for Migration (IOM) staff in Lampedusa.

The survivors are from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Mali and Mauritania, the IOM said. The UNHCR estimated the death toll of at least 300 over the last week on the basis of interviews with survivors.

Libya is the primary departure point for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Many pay smugglers up to $2,000 to make the crossing.