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One of the 28 survivors of the weekend sinking arrives in Catania in Sicily
The number of migrants dying in Mediterranean Sea crossings could hit 30,000 this year if the current rate continues, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says.
The deaths in 2015 so far are 30 times higher than the same period last year.
The UN believes the sinking of one boat at the weekend claimed over 800 lives, making it the deadliest recorded.
The Tunisian captain of the boat survived and has been accused in Italy of reckless multiple homicide.
Prosecutors there allege Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, steered his heavily overloaded boat into collision with a merchant vessel coming to its rescue.
Locked below decks
IOM spokesman Joel Millman told reporters in Geneva: “The 2015 death toll now is more than 30 times last year’s total at this date… when just 56 deaths of migrants had been reported on the Mediterranean.
“IOM now fears the 2014 total of 3,279 migrant [deaths] on the Mediterranean may be surpassed this year in a matter of weeks, and could well top 30,000 by the end of the year, based on the current death toll. It could actually be even higher.”
More than 1,700 migrants are believed to have died so far in 2015.
The number of migrants dying in Mediterranean Sea crossings could hit 30,000 this year if the current rate continues, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says.
The deaths in 2015 so far are 30 times higher than the same period last year.
The UN believes the sinking of one boat at the weekend claimed over 800 lives, making it the deadliest recorded.
The Tunisian captain of the boat survived and has been accused in Italy of reckless multiple homicide.
Prosecutors there allege Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, steered his heavily overloaded boat into collision with a merchant vessel coming to its rescue.
Locked below decks
IOM spokesman Joel Millman told reporters in Geneva: “The 2015 death toll now is more than 30 times last year’s total at this date… when just 56 deaths of migrants had been reported on the Mediterranean.
“IOM now fears the 2014 total of 3,279 migrant [deaths] on the Mediterranean may be surpassed this year in a matter of weeks, and could well top 30,000 by the end of the year, based on the current death toll. It could actually be even higher.”
More than 1,700 migrants are believed to have died so far in 2015.
©BBC