Geneva, May 8 (RHC)-- More than 200 migrants are feared to have died in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend, according to testimony from survivors, and several bodies, including that of an infant, have washed up on a Libyan beach.
About 7,500 people have been rescued off the coast of Libya, according to the Italian and Libyan coastguards. Two groups of survivors told the organizations that hundreds drowned when their rubber boats began to deflate before rescuers arrived.
More than 60 are feared dead and three bodies were recovered on Saturday, survivors brought to Sicily on Sunday told Italian coastguards. They said that the boat left Libya carrying about 120 persons.
Migrant arrivals to Italy by sea are up about 30 percent this year over 2016, when a record 181,000 arrived from North Africa.