The boat set sail from Egypt’s north coast early on Wednesday morning and capsized a short while later near Burg Rashid, a village in the Egyptian province of Beheira.
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Rescuers brought more bodies ashore Thursday after a boat crowded with migrants capsized off the Egyptian coast, leaving at least 55 people dead and dozens missing.
Authorities added that they had issued a warrant for five more people connected with the tragedy.
Authorities have struggled to give accurate figures for the number of people on board the capsized vessel. Survivors say most of those who died were women and children. The boat, which was carrying around 600 people, was headed to Europe.
According to Egyptian state media, the boat was carrying about 600 passengers, of which about 150 have been rescued after thorough operation. I’m sure you can appreciate the difficulties in gathering accurate information in cases like this, ‘ said Jenny Sparks of IOM in Geneva. He said 157 people were rescued.
Map of Egypt locating Rosetta, the port near where a boat carrying migrants has capsized, with many drowned.
But Egypt has come under closer scrutiny this year because a growing number of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are using it as an alternative route.
“The capsized vessel reflects the recent economic recession in Egypt that pushed hundreds of youths to risk their lives to flee the hard conditions”, said Mohamed Shehata, head of the Egyptian Transport Association. He identified the skipper of the fishing boat as Mohammed Abu Hamid.
However, a military spokesperson claimed in a statement that the coast guard had rescued 163 people.
It’s not entirely clear where the boat was heading, Egyptian officials assume it was on its way to Italy.
“The Mediterranean Sea is very well patrolled, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid fatalities” because the quality of the boats is so poor and migrants are driven by political, economic and environmental forces to flee, Di Giacomo said. “If this man [skipper Mohammed Abu Hamid] wasn’t there, if this man wasn’t sent by God, the entire group of migrants would have been dead by now”, he said.
Di Giacomo said those aboard the boat were mainly East African and Egyptian, including many unaccompanied youths whose ranks have increased this year because of economic need and provisions in Italian law that grant them temporary papers and bar their involuntary deportation.
Prosecutors ordered the crew members jailed for four days while an investigation takes place.
In recent years, thousands of refugees and migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean in search of better jobs and opportunities.
But fatality rates had risen, with 2016 on track to be “the deadliest year on record in the Mediterranean Sea”, said the UN’s refugee agency.
In the first seven months of this year, Italian data showed that the number of migrants who reached the country by boat from Egypt was almost 70% higher than the same period of last year.
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Numerous survivors in the latest tragedy have been detained by police. His brother and cousin were on the boat.
