Nearly 700 migrants may have died in two recent shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday, according to dpa.
Quoting two survivors, the IOM's Italy office said human traffickers
deliberately sank a boat with about 500 Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian
and Sudanese migrants, after they refused an at-sea transfer onto a
more rickety vessel.
'If this story - which is being investigated by police - is confirmed, it would be the biggest shipwreck of recent years. It would be particulary serious as it would not be an incident, but an episode of mass killing,' the IOM said in a statement.