Migrants Feared Lost at Sea Near Libya

So here we have the real story unfolding behind the ME unrest. Sub-Saharan Black Africans - Congolese, Eritrean, Nigerian, Ivory Coast and Somali nationals - are using the conflict in Libya to make their way into Europe - where they're heading for the more affluent welfare countries, like France, UK and Germany. The bleeding heart liberals in Europe and UNHCR want Italy to save all those who pack onto boats and which later capsize. Victims of one such boat, who made it back to the Libyan shore, were quickly rounded up by the people smugglers and put on the next boat out. You see, these Black Africans are PAYING people smugglers to help them get into the EU - as 'refugees' of course - and all the while the EU is enticing them with soft border control. What a joke. Good luck Europe - if you haven't learnt your lesson by now then there's no hope. TURN THE BOATS AROUND and stop with this insane third-world invasion into Europe! This is just the beginning but it's not the end by a long, welfare mile!

An overloaded boat carrying more than 600 migrants capsized off the coast of Libya Friday and many of the passengers are believed to have drowned, the United Nations said Monday, marking what may be the deadliest chapter yet in an escalating immigration crisis unleashed by the conflict in the North African country.

Migrants arriving at the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, just off the coast of Tunisia, over the weekend told staff of the United Nations' refugee agency that they witnessed a boat brimming with hundreds of migrants—who were predominantly Congolese, Eritrean, Nigerian, Ivory Coast and Somali nationals—sink near the port of Tripoli, said Laura Boldrini, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A spokesman for the Libyan government in Tripoli declined to comment on the matter.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said it was unclear how many people survived the shipwreck, but that some of the people aboard the capsized boat managed to swim ashore. He added that migrants have often drowned in similar incidents, because they don't know how to swim. One woman who swam ashore told IOM staff that her baby drowned in the shipwreck. Mr. Chauzy said that once ashore, she and other migrants were "herded" by armed men onto another boat that eventually reached Lampedusa.

In recent months, many migrant boats bound for Lampedusa have disappeared after setting off from the shores of Tunisia and Libya. With the conflict in Libya escalating, human traffickers in Tripoli have tapped a stream of undocumented migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who, having been bottled up in Libya for years, are now fleeing the violence, the UNHCR said.

As the weather is becoming warmer, the crossings have become more frequent, and Western officials have struggled to keep track of the boats. While Italy has scrambled to deploy the national coast guard to monitor its waters, the European Union hasn't hashed out a comprehensive plan for dealing with the migrant boats. Since March, some 900 people are believed to have drowned in attempted crossings, Ms. Boldrini said, including a boat carrying about 250 migrants that capsized in early April.

"It's becoming more and more dangerous," Ms. Boldrini said, adding that the traffickers are "just tossing boats out there without any direction."

Italy and France have called on other EU members to help reinforce sea patrols along the North African coast, but so far the appeal has been overshadowed by a debate over which EU countries should be responsible for handling migrants who have already arrived. Many of the migrants view Italy as a mere gateway on their way to richer EU members, such as France and Germany.

Since the outbreak of unrest across North Africa, more than 25,000 migrants, mainly Tunisians in search of jobs, have used small fishing boats to make the daylong 100-mile160-kilometer journey to Lampedusa from the coast of Tunisia. The journey from Tripoli, however, is three times as long, so traffickers have begun to use bigger boats packed with more people, aid workers said. More than 11,000 migrants from Libya have reached Italian shores, the UNHCR said.

A Tripoli-based social worker said relatives of African migrants traveling on the most recent ill-fated vessel told her it had left a beach in or near the Libyan capital early Friday with more than 600 people aboard.

The social worker said a friend of one of those aboard later told her of having witnessed a chaotic scene as the vessel prepared to depart. According to this account, crew members feared the vessel was overcrowded and tried to persuade some passengers to get off. But the passengers, who had already paid smugglers for their passage, refused.

The social worker said she had no direct knowledge of the vessel's fate. But she said relatives of five migrants on the vessel—Congolese, Eritrean and Nigerian— had told her that those passengers were feared dead because they had been expected to contact their families from Italy.

Another boat—carrying 798 sub-Saharan migrants—passed the shipwreck on its way out to sea on Friday and continued on to Lampedusa, the UNHCR said. Upon reaching Lampedusa Sunday, the migrants recounted having witnessed the boat capsize. "They saw cadavers in the water," Ms. Boldrini said.

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