Alwaght- A boat carrying more than one hundred migrants has sunk off the coast of Libya in what is expected to be the worst such incident this year.
The rescue operation is under way in the region where bad weather conditions have exacerbated the already dire situation.
So far only four people have been rescued while eight bodies have also been recovered from the sea.
The incident happened some 50 kilometers from the Libyan coast where the Italian teams are doing a search and rescue operation, Italy’s ANSA agency reported.
Only four people have been rescued so far, Flavio di Giacomo, Rome spokesman for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), said.
The weather conditions are “extremely bad,” he added speaking to The Independent. Conflicting reports regarding the number of people onboard emerged, with AFP putting it at 107, citing the Italian coastguard.
Some 13 people died in the first 10 days of 2017 attempting to cross the Mediterranean, with 1,159 migrants getting to the coast, the IOM said.
Last year was marked as the deadliest on record, with over 5,000 refugees drowned, suffocated or crushed while trying to cross the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, according to the UN figures, as quoted by AFP.
In 2016, the number of Mediterranean migrants, mainly from West Africa, also reached a record high, topping 181,000 people, the EU rescue operation Frontex said.
