AS MANY as 170 people are feared to have died in two separate Mediterranean shipwrecks, the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR said.
The Italian navy reports a ship sank off the coast of Libya with 117 people on board, while Moroccan and Spanish authorities have tried to find a lost boat in the western Mediterranean. More than 2,200 people lost their lives trying to cross the Sea in 2018.
The first boat reportedly disappeared with 53 people on board in the Alborán Sea at the western end of the Mediterranean.
One survivor is being treated in Morocco after spending 24 hours stranded at sea.
The second ship, a dinghy, left Libya on Saturday, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said three survivors told them 120 people were on board when it departed Garabulli in Libya.
