DAR KEBDANI, Morocco, Dec. 6 (UPI) — Hundreds of migrants have been pulled to safety in recent days from boats in dire straits off Africa and elsewhere, a U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.
The Moroccan navy rescued 53 people found stranded on a disabled vessel in the Mediterranean Sea last week, Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland, said in a release. The bodies of four people were discovered in the boat and at least one person is known to have drowned, she aid.
The boat filled with refugees, including Congolese, was found a couple of miles off the town of Dar Kebdani in northern Morocco.
The Italian coast guard Monday rescued 80 dehydrated people, mainly Afghans, on two boats that had set sail from Greece a week earlier, Fleming said.
The refugee agency said it had learned a boat that embarked from Libya last weekend with 44 passengers, mostly Somalis, was rescued by the Maltese armed forces.
The Libyan coast guard has said as many as 400 people had been rescued from boats off the country’s coast in recent days.
The U.N. agency said migrants and refugees have resumed trying to use Libya as a transit route to Europe.
