239 migrants die in two shipwrecks off Libya

Migrants ask for help from a dinghy boat as they are approached by the SOS Mediterranee's ship Aquarius

At least 239 migrants have died in two shipwrecks off Libya, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said the information was confirmed by two survivors brought ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Most victims of the migrant shipwrecks reported by survivors appear to have been sub-Saharan Africans.

Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said 4,220 lives had now been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year

source : gulfnews