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Migrant drownings: Child yards from promised land lifted lifeless from sea in latest heartbreaking Mediterranean tragedy

A young child’s lifeless body was pulled from the sea yesterday after the latest migrant boat tragedy in the Mediterranean.

The tragic boy was one of three people drowned when a packed fishing boat smashed into rocks as it reached the Greek island of Rhodes.

About 100 shivering survivors were rescued as they desperately clung to the wreckage. Their ­nationalities were not known last night.

Italy and Malta were also ­scrambling to help two more stricken boats in the Med, with hundreds of African families trapped on board.


Another official said six different rescue operations were underway.

Meanwhile frantic teams were still searching for bodies and survivors after an estimated 900 people were feared drowned at the weekend in one of the worst sea disasters in decades.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It has been a dark day for Europe.”

He and other EU chiefs are now under mounting pressure to reverse their controversial decision to withdraw support for search and rescue operations in the Med.

At least 1,600 people have already drowned this year as they flee poverty-stricken and war-torn parts of Africa and Asia for Europe.

During the same period last year, the death toll was just 17.

The huge increase in people risking the perilous voyage is linked to the breakdown of law and order in countries along North Africa’s Mediterranean coast.

On Sunday a 75ft vessel carrying 900 migrants sank as it head towards Italy. It had sailed from Egypt and made its last stop in Zuwara, Libya.

The tragedy is now considered the worst migrant boat disaster since the Second World War.

Only a handful of survivors were found by the Italian coastguards and fishermen who rushed to the scene. Every woman and child on board is feared drowned.

Vincenzo Bonomo, the captain of one of the fishing boats, said: “It was a sight that broke the hearts of even men of the sea like us.”


Credit: Daily Mirror

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