400 migrants die in shipwreck off Libya
Tue Apr 14, 2015 2:03pm EDT
About 400 migrants
died in an attempt to reach Italy from Libya when their boat capsized, survivors said on
Tuesday, the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean where the death toll from shipwrecks has surged this year.
The
boat, carrying about 550 migrants in total, flipped about 24 hours after
leaving the Libyan coast, according to some of the 150 survivors who were
rescued and brought to a southern Italian port on Tuesday morning, Save the
Children reported.
Before this
incident there had already been more than 500 deaths of migrants crossing the
Mediterranean from Africa this year, up
sharply from 47 in the
same period of 2014, said the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM,國際移民組織)
The survivors
of the latest shipwreck were mostly sub-Saharan Africans, but
no further details were available, a Save the Children spokesman told Reuters.
It was not clear exactly when the boat had capsized.
The number of boats carrying migrants aiming to
reach the EU from Africa has picked up in
recent weeks as fine spring weather makes the passage safer. In February, more
than 300 drowned when attempting the crossing in cold weather and rough seas.
Save the Children, the IOM and other
humanitarian organizations have called for the European Union to bolster its sea rescue
operations before the migrant flows soar as they usually do in
the summer months.
On Monday, 2,851 migrants were saved in
rescue operations in the Mediterranean , the
Italian coastguard said, adding to at least nine who died and 5,629 who were
saved over the weekend.
Italy, which handled the largest number of
migrant arrivals in the EU, has become increasingly alarmed about the breakdown
of law and order in Libya, which has greatly exacerbated the task of tackling the migrant flows.
Libya is home to two rival governments, loosely aligned militia forces and a growing militant Islamist movement.
Separately, the EU border control agency
Frontex said on Tuesday that migrant traffickers had fired shots to
prevent their wooden boat being confiscated after rescuers saved
the 250 people it was carrying off the coast of Libya.
After the migrants had been transferred, a
speedboat approached and its crew fired several shots into the air before the assailants sped away
with the empty migrant boat, Frontex said.
Frontex said the episode marked the second
time this year that armed smugglers had taken back a vessel used to transport
migrants following a rescue in the central Mediterranean.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14 /us-italy-migrant-shipwreck-idUSKBN0N51Y120150414
Stucture of the Lead:
Who:Migrants
When:Apr 14, 2015
What:A tragedy
Why:Migrants died in shipwreck when they attempt to get to Italy from Libya
Where:Mediterranean
How:
Keywords:
1.capsized 翻船
2.death toll 死亡人數
3.surged 飆升
4.bolster 加強
5.flows soar 流量飆升
6.exacerbated 加劇
7.tackling 搶斷
8.rival 競爭的
9.militant 激進的
10.traffickers 毒販
11.confiscated 沒收
12.assailants 襲擊者
13.smugglers 走私者
Stucture of the Lead:
Who:Migrants
When:Apr 14, 2015
What:A tragedy
Why:Migrants died in shipwreck when they attempt to get to Italy from Libya
Where:Mediterranean
How:
Keywords:
1.capsized 翻船
2.death toll 死亡人數
3.surged 飆升
4.bolster 加強
5.flows soar 流量飆升
6.exacerbated 加劇
7.tackling 搶斷
8.rival 競爭的
9.militant 激進的
10.traffickers 毒販
11.confiscated 沒收
12.assailants 襲擊者
13.smugglers 走私者
