At least 43 people have been killed and scores more are missing after a boat carrying nearly 600 migrants capsized off the coast of Egypt.
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Rescue workers have managed to save around 155 people so far, Egyptian state news agency MENA said. “The boat sunk. My three children died”, said Badr Abdel Hamid, 28, before breaking into tears.
The accident came a day after the military said it stopped a boat carrying 68 migrants before it set off from Egypt’s northwestern coast, not far from Rosetta.
They are accused of involuntary manslaughter and human trafficking, judicial officials were reported as saying.
More and more people have been trying to cross Mediterranean Sea this year.
According to local media, the coast guard have rescued some 150 survivors from the boat, meaning some 400 were still missing.
Rescuers said search operations would focus on the boat’s cold storage room where witnesses said around 100 people sought refuge as the vessel flipped over.
The boat was carrying Syrian, Egyptian and African migrants, according to security services.
The number of refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt to Europe has increased significantly in the past year, European Union border agency Frontex said earlier this month. Egyptians are also counted among these immigrants, most of whom end up travelling to Italy.
Between January and June this year, 2,800 deaths were recorded, against 1,838 during the same period last year.
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Numerous refugees using the central Mediterranean route – which runs roughly from Libya or other north African countries to Italy – are from Nigeria, Eritrea and Gambia, according to the International Organization for Migration.
