Alarm over Missing Migrants after Setting Sail from Libya

A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS
A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS
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Alarm over Missing Migrants after Setting Sail from Libya

A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS
A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS

Europe's coast guard agency said Sunday it was looking for a dinghy believed to be carrying dozens of migrants when it went missing after setting sail from Libya for Italy.

The UN refugee agency told AFP it was "very worried" about the fate of what could be 85 migrants lost in Mediterranean Sea.

Two German monitors of dangerous migrant crossings first reported spotting four boats in distress off the southern coast of Malta over the weekend.

The European Union's Frontex border guard and coast guard agency later told AFP that one of the four boats had safely reached Italy and another two were still at sea.

It said a fourth boat initially spotted on Friday was unaccounted for.

"Frontex plane will fly again (Monday) morning in search of the remaining boat," a spokesman told AFP.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it appeared that the missing boat had capsized.

"We are very worried," UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami told AFP.

Frontex said it had notified the coast guard authorities of Italy and Malta about the boats at sea.

Neither country's border authorities commented on the reported shipwreck when contacted by AFP.

Germany's Sea-Watch International group showed the boats' geolocation -- including one boat marked "unknown GPS contact lost" -- on its official Twitter account.

Sea-Watch presumed that the lost boat was carrying 85 people.

It said the other three boats were carrying 173 migrants in all.

Germany's United4Rescue monitor of migrant crossings said in a statement that it was receiving the same reports and feared for the lives of "dozens".

Italy has long established itself as the primary European port of entry for migrants seeking refuge from Africa and the Middle East.

But the Mediterranean country shut down its ports and said it would quarantine any illegal migrants because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Swiss-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the reports were "very worrying" but difficult to verify.

"In the absence of boats in the area, it is very difficult at the moment to confirm that there has been a shipwreck, or the number of victims involved," IOM Italy spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP.

"And unfortunately, from experience, we also think it is likely that there have been shipwrecks of which we are not aware."



Women and Children Scavenge for Food in Gaza, UN Official Says

 Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Women and Children Scavenge for Food in Gaza, UN Official Says

 Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Large groups of women and children are scavenging for food among mounds of trash in parts of the Gaza Strip, a UN official said on Friday following a visit to the Palestinian enclave.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, expressed concern about the levels of hunger, even in areas of central Gaza where aid agencies have teams on the ground.

"I was particularly alarmed by the prevalence of hunger," Sunghay told a Geneva press briefing via video link from Jordan. "Acquiring basic necessities has become a daily, dreadful struggle for survival."

Sunghay said the UN had been unable to take any aid to northern Gaza, where he said an estimated 70,000 people remain following "repeated impediments or rejections of humanitarian convoys by the Israeli authorities".

Sunghay visited camps for people recently displaced from parts of northern Gaza. They were living in horrendous conditions with severe food shortages and poor sanitation, he said.

"It is so obvious that massive humanitarian aid needs to come in – and it is not. It is so important the Israeli authorities make this happen," he said. He did not specify the last time UN agencies had sent aid to northern Gaza.

US WARNING

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin set out steps last month for Israel to carry out in 30 days to address the situation in Gaza, warning that failure to do so may have consequences on US military aid to Israel.

The State Department said on Nov. 12 that President Joe Biden's administration had concluded that Israel was not currently impeding assistance to Gaza and therefore was not violating US law.

The Israeli army, which began its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the group's attack on southern Israeli communities in October 2023, said its operating in northern Gaza since Oct. 5 were trying to prevent militants regrouping and waging attacks from those areas.

Israel's government body that oversees aid, Cogat, says it facilitates the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and accuses UN agencies of not distributing it efficiently.

Looting has also depleted aid supplies within the Gaza Strip, with nearly 100 food aid trucks raided on Nov. 16.

"The women I met had all either lost family members, were separated from their families, had relatives buried under rubble, or were themselves injured or sick," Sunghay said of his stay in the Gaza Strip.

"Breaking down in front of me, they desperately pleaded for a ceasefire."