One week after a shipwreck killed more than 300 African migrants seeking asylum in Europe, another boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, Oct. 11, killing several more.
The boat, carrying more than 200 migrants, capsized about 105 kilometres southeast of Lampedusa, an island that itself is about 130 kilometres south of the Italian island of Sicily. The Associated Press reported that most of the passengers had been rescued, but that several bodies were seen in the water.
As World Watch Monitor reported on Oct. 8, many of those who pay smugglers more than $1,000 for a spot on the dangerous boats are fleeing persecution in places such as Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea.