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移民船沉没

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As many as 700 people are found dead after a boat carrying migrants overturned in the Mediterranean sea on Saturday evening.

The 70-foot fishing boat went down after passengers moved to one side of the vessel to signal to a passing merchant ship, and it overturned. The shipwreck may be one of the worst disasters of the Mediterranean migrant crisis, and follows the feared drowning of more than 400 in two separate incidents  in the sea earlier this week. 

A rescue operation organized by the Italian coast guards is still underway in the hopes of rescuing more people from the midnight sinking off the Libyan coast, 120 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said at a political event in Mantua, “How can we remain insensible when we’re witnessing the entire population dying at a time when modern means of communication allow us to be aware of everything?”   

In 2013, the Italian government launched the search-and-rescue operation Mare Nostrum after hundreds drowned in an incident off the coast of Lampedusa. The operation was cancelled last year after the government failed to persuade the fellow EU members to help meet its operating costs of nine million euros (£6.5million).

The fishing vessel involved in today’s disaster had sent out an emergency call after having trouble with piloting the vessel, and a Portuguese merchant ship arrived at the scene. However, as it approached, dozens of people moved from one side of the vessel to the other, and it overturned, Italian news bureau Ansa reports. 

Yesterday, the International Organization for Migration said the rate of migrant and refugee deaths this year is ten times higher than in 2014, even though the number of those who made it through safely is about the same. 

Greece, the EU’s second-biggest gateway for migrants after Italy, appealed to its European Union partners Friday for more help in policing its sea borders as immigrants increasingly make dangerous journeys to escape war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.


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