Boat Heading to Italy Capsizes, Nine Migrants Dead

An overcrowded boat carrying migrants capsized near the Libyan coast leading to the deaths of nine people and the rescue of 144, Italian media reported Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Italian rescue services were alerted on Sunday afternoon after reports of a capsized boat some 80 miles north of the Libyan coast, Italian daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano said. Recovered bodies have been brought to shore by Italian coast guard and navy vessels. Further rescue operations are underway.

Undocumented migrants from Middle East and Africa, numbering in the tens of thousands and often fleeing war-torn countries, enter Italy across the Mediterranean sea every year, risking their lives to reach the European Union.

As many as 5,629 people from 22 different vessels were rescued from the Mediterranean sea in three days between April 10-12, according to the newspaper. As of Monday, Italy has received 10 reports of boats heading toward the country.

The EU border agency Frontex estimates that over 276,000 people entered the European Union illegally in 2014, marking a 155-percent increase over 2013. The migrants arrive mostly having crossed the Mediterranean, in the area separating North Africa from the Spanish and Italian coasts.

At least 218,000 people crossed the sea in 2014, and almost 3,500 people died in the attempt, according to the UN data. Syrians and Eritreans make up almost 50 percent of the migrants.

Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have voiced concerns over the rising number of fatal accidents in the Mediterranean. The United Nations is currently working on a report on border management in the EU, to be presented in June.