LIBYA: Migrant crisis: UN says 250 missing in shipwrecks

Nearly 250 people are feared drowned after two shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean over the weekend. Some 163 people are missing after a boat reportedly sank off the Libyan coast on Sunday, the UN said. Another sank on Friday night and, though some 50 people were rescued and taken to Sicily, about 82 are missing. […]

Nearly 250 people are feared drowned after two shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean over the weekend. Some 163 people are missing after a boat reportedly sank off the Libyan coast on Sunday, the UN said.

Another sank on Friday night and, though some 50 people were rescued and taken to Sicily, about 82 are missing.

The central Mediterranean route for illegal migration to Europe is currently the busiest. It is also one of the most deadly, the UN says.

“Since the beginning of 2017, one person out of 35 has died on the sea journey from Libya to Italy,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said two days ago.