As many as 42 people have drowned after a migrant boat capsized off the Egyptian coast here on Wednesday.
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The boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Burg Rashid, a village in the northern Beheira province.
“There was 200 of us and the boat was already full, 200 more then arrived”. More than 150 people have been reportedly pulled alive from the water.
The boat had been carrying Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean, and Somali migrants, officials said.
Families have been waiting on the quayside in the town of Rasheed for news on their missing loved ones.
“It is his destiny to leave yesterday and come back dead today”.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that all possible resources would be allocated to the search and rescue mission.
It was not immediately clear where the boat had been heading.
The border guards rescued dozens of people from the boat, sent some of them to nearby hospitals while the rescue process was still going on.
More and more people have been trying to cross to Europe from the African coastline, particularly from Libya, where traffickers operate with relative impunity.
Earlier that month, a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sank off the Greek island of Crete and the bodies 104 migrants washed up on a beach in Libya.
An initial breakdown of the nationalities of the migrants showed that they included 111 Egyptians, mostly teenagers and men in their 20s, said Sultan.
Some 206,400 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The International Organization for Migration estimates 2,901 people died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2016, a 37 percent increase over the first six months of previous year.
Today’s incident comes two days after Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said at a United Nations meeting that “illegal immigration” should be at the top of global priorities.
Some 1.3 million migrants reached Europe’s shores previous year fleeing war and economic hardship, prompting bitter rows among states over how to share responsibility.
If they survive the perilous maritime journey, migrants this year face stronger European Union border controls.
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.
He made an abortive effort to travel to Greece a year ago.
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Numerous survivors in the latest incident have been detained by police.
