Italian coastguards have rescued around 2,500 migrants from the Mediterranean over the weekend. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has asked other countries to help deal with the refugee crisis.
At least 50 migrants were reported to be missing after Italian coastguards rescued 2,500 people from the sea over the last two days. Libyan officials said they found the bodies of eight migrants on an inflatable boat east of Tripoli on Saturday.
2500 ppl rescued in the #Med; over the weekend in a dozen of operations now landing in different ports of Sicily and southern Italy pic.twitter.com/rj83qUAnDz
— UNHCR Italia (@UNHCRItalia) June 12, 2017
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on other countries to help tide over the influx of migrants coming from Libya. "Solutions cannot just be in Italy... New measures on both sides of the Central Mediterranean Sea to seriously combat trafficking are needed," the UN agency said in a statement.
It also demanded that new efforts be made to help refugees before they reach Libya, where people were detained in camps and treated to "horrific exploitation and abuse."
A majority of refugees trying to make it to Europe from Africa cross over from Libya. The numbers have sharply gone up since 2014, the UNHCR said. So far, over 1,770 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean. More are believed to have perished in the Sahara desert before arriving in Libya.
Infomigrants with AP and Reuters