Help Libya boat people, Europe told
Source: Agencies |
May 11, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
The United Nations refugee agency appealed yesterday to European countries to do more to rescue people fleeing the violence in Libya and dying by hundreds in overloaded boats that capsize in the Mediterranean Sea.
A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says European authorities patrolling the Mediterranean should not wait to receive distress calls from stricken vessels before offering assistance.
"Any boat that is leaving Libya should be considered, at first glance, as a boat in need of assistance," the spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, told reporters in Geneva yesterday.
It appears now that hundreds of Libyans have lost their lives at sea in recent weeks, and Fleming said the boats will only keep on coming.
The UN agency said that, since March 25, when boats started leaving Libya, at least 800 people are unaccounted for - and that figure does not include those who perished last Friday when a boat believed to have been carrying more than 600 people capsized near Tripoli, the Libyan capital, killing many if not most of those on board.
A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says European authorities patrolling the Mediterranean should not wait to receive distress calls from stricken vessels before offering assistance.
"Any boat that is leaving Libya should be considered, at first glance, as a boat in need of assistance," the spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, told reporters in Geneva yesterday.
It appears now that hundreds of Libyans have lost their lives at sea in recent weeks, and Fleming said the boats will only keep on coming.
The UN agency said that, since March 25, when boats started leaving Libya, at least 800 people are unaccounted for - and that figure does not include those who perished last Friday when a boat believed to have been carrying more than 600 people capsized near Tripoli, the Libyan capital, killing many if not most of those on board.
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