RISE IN DROWNINGS
UN warns on refugee crisis in wake of shipwreck
Rome — Nearly 2,000 people are believed to have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2017, the UN’s refugee agency said Tuesday on World Refugee Day, as it reported fresh deaths. "This is among the world’s most dangerous routes — a journey that no one takes lightly," it said, as witnesses described the horror of watching friends and loved ones drown. After reports on Monday of a shipwreck off the Libyan coast that claimed nearly 130 lives, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said dozens of families with children were feared drowned in a separate incident after their boat sank off the North African country’s coast. "According to witnesses, a boat carrying at least 85 people broke in two and sank shortly after setting off from Sabratha on Thursday," spokesman Federico Fossi said. Three wooden boats had set sail together from the conflict-hit country that morning: those travelling on one of them were rescued at sea and brought to Italy, where they described the fate of the ot...
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