Up to 700 people fleeing Africa and the Middle East are believed to have drowned in the shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, bringing the death toll this year to almost 3,000, the International Organisation for Migration said.
Up to 500 migrants are believed to have died after traffickers stuffed
their ship off Malta’s coast last week, an event that only came to light this weekend in testimony
from two of the nine survivors.
Some 500 people were on board – Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese. The unfortunate people were trying to reach Europe.