UN: Mediterranean death toll passes 5,000 refugees

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

Some 100 refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in two shipwrecks on Thursday which brought the Mediterranean death toll a record 5,000 in 2016, the U.N. said on Friday.

"Around 100 people are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday. The Italian coastguard carried out four rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea. These latest tragedies bring the number of casualties in the Mediterranean this year to over 5,000. This is the worst annual death toll ever seen," the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said in a press conference in Geneva.

Noting that in two separate incidents rubber dinghies collapsed and passengers fell into the sea between Italy and Libya, Spindler said 63 people survived after first dinghy was carrying between 120-140 people, collapsed and passengers fell into the water and the second dinghy was carrying about 120 people and 80 were rescued.

"An average of 14 people have died every day in the Mediterranean Sea during 2016, the highest number ever recorded," he noted.

According to UN, over a million people crossed the Mediterranean last year and 3,771 casualties were recorded.