A boat carrying African migrants headed to Europe capsized off the Mediterranean coast near the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Wednesday, killing at least 29 people, Egyptian authorities said.
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The boat had been carrying Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somali migrants, officials said.
Although other reports said that over 150 people were rescued, Megahed clarified that the Health Ministry’s data are restricted to those survivors who received first aid treatment at the ministry’s hospitals.
Mohamed Nasrawy, an Egyptian fisherman, said he knew seven people on the shipwrecked vessel, two of whom were still missing.
“The death toll is going to rise”, a medical source told AFP. “The boat is meant to hold 200, and they put 400 in it. It hasn’t been opened and there must be a lot of people inside”.
New and more unsafe smuggling attempts to reach Europe by riskier routes have led to a spike in the number of migrants dying as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean, the International Organization for Migration said in a report last month.
Many survivors were in police custody early Thursday.
Rescue workers have so far saved 154 people, officials said. Everyone tried to get out alive.
“I just wanted to reach Europe and live a decent life”, said Ahmed Gamal, 17.
The men were detained on possible charges of “human trafficking and involuntary manslaughter”.
More than 10,000 people have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean for Europe since 2014, according to the United Nations.
Asylum-seekers have been seeking other ways to reach Europe since March, when Balkan countries closed the popular overland route and the European Union agreed a deal with Turkey to halt departures. Local official Alaa Osman from Beheira province said the migrants were from several African countries; mainly Egypt and Syria.
It said 2,901 people died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2016, a 37% increase over the first six months of past year.
More than 300,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, down from 520,000 during the same period last year, according to the UN Refugee agency.
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Some 1.3 million migrants reached Europe’s shores a year ago fleeing war and economic hardship, prompting bitter rows among states over how to share responsibility.
