Migrants feared dead after boat carrying 100 people capsized off coast of Libya

A migrant ship carrying round 100 individuals has capsized within the frigid waters off Libya, help teams mentioned.

Solely 4 survivors had been rescued from the freezing waters after hours of looking out, the teams added.

Eight our bodies had been recovered however poor situations had been hampering the search going down 30 miles off Libya's coast, Italy's ANSA information company reported.

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Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, leap into the water from a crowded picket boat throughout a rescue operation on the Mediterranean sea on August 29 final 12 months

Flavio di Giacomo, Rome spokesman for the Worldwide Group of Migration, mentioned 4 individuals had been rescued out of an estimated 110 aboard.

He mentioned extra particulars would grow to be out there after the 4 are dropped at shore.

In a press release, the Italian coastguard's press workplace mentioned: 'The our bodies of eight individuals have been recovered.

'4 individuals have been saved, they usually say 107 migrants had been onboard the boat in all.'

A French warship, patrolling underneath the EU's Frontex border operation, picked up the survivors and two service provider ships had been heading for the realm, whereas a Frontex airplane and an Italian naval helicopter additionally joined the operation.

On Friday, round 550 migrants had been picked up from 4 inflatable dinghies by Italian coastguard vessels, an an Italian naval ship, an NGO boat and a service provider vessel.

The overwhelming majority of migrant ships set off from Libya's lawless coasts, the place smugglers function with impunity charging determined migrants a whole bunch of apiece to make the damaging Mediterranean crossing.

Migrants in an overcrowded boat, which was about to capsize, are rescued by Bettica and Bergamini ships of Italian Navy at Sicilian Strait, between Libya and Italy on Could 25, 2016

Final 12 months noticed a document excessive quantity - 181,000 individuals - heading to Italy by sea, the EU rescue operation Frontex reported.

West Africans, most of them hailing from Nigeria, accounted for many of the migrants in 2016, with a 10-fold improve of their numbers since 2010, Frontex reported.

The UN has mentioned greater than 5,000 individuals died in 2016 making an attempt to cross the Mediterranean, most of them on the Libya-Italy route.

In one other incident, the our bodies of six migrants had been discovered washed up on seashores close to Algeciras, the port on the southern tip of Spain close to Gibraltar, the Spanish sea rescue service mentioned on Saturday.

The six had been all males, apparently from sub-Saharan Africa.