The bodies of 162 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast on Friday, three days after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsised in the Mediterranean while attempting to head to Europe.
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Dozens more are feared dead, Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira, said earlier. Yet UNHCR says that since 2014 there has been a steady increase in the number of people intercepted while trying to leave Egypt, with 4,600 people arrested this year, a 28-per cent increase compared to the previous year.
Survivors said that overcrowding caused the boat to capsize.
Authorities have recovered dozens of victims’ bodies in the boat disaster but many are still missing.
He did not provide a breakdown of the survivors’ nationalities.
Wahdan el-Sayyed, a spokesman for the northern province, said the search was ongoing.
The shipwreck occurred Wednesday off the coast of Rashid City, and many of those who drowned were children between the ages of 10 and 13, officials previously said.
On Thursday, Egyptian prosecutors ordered the arrest and detention of the four crew members for four days pending investigation over charges of human trafficking, wrongful death, wrongful injury and using a fishing boat for another goal.
Egypt’s state-run media earlier reported that at least 600 people had been aboard the ill-fated vessel.
“A total of 164 people have been rescued since the boat sank on Wednesday off Beheira’s town of Rosetta”.
Authorities succeeded in rescuing 163 people, including 123 Egyptians, from the accident.
The increased death toll means more than 3,500 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year – on pace for a new record.
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Regional turmoil and high unemployment rates are said to be the main factors behind the risky journeys.
