Save the Children: Dozens feared dead in migrant tragedy

A migrant is helped disembark in the Sicilian harbor of Pozzallo, Italy, early Monday, April 20, 2015. About 100 migrants, including 28 children, were rescued on Sunday by a merchant vessel in the Sicilian Strait while they were trying to cross. Another smuggler’s boat crammed with hundreds of people overturned off Libya’s coast on Saturday as rescuers approached, causing what could be the Mediterranean’s deadliest known migrant tragedy and intensifying pressure on the European Union Sunday to finally meet demands for decisive action. AP

ROME — The Save the Children aid group is reporting another migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean, with survivors saying many of their fellow passengers fell out of a rubber boat and likely drowned as a rescue vessel neared.

Save the Children’s Giovanna di Benedetto said from Catania, Sicily, that the exact toll isn’t known but that several survivors in their first interviews with aid groups reported that “dozens” of people fell into the sea and couldn’t swim.

She said the incident was believed to have occurred on Sunday in the sea between Libya and Sicily when a commercial vessel approached to rescue the migrant boat. The vessel arrived in Catania on Tuesday.

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