WATCH: Tens of thousands of people are trying to escape Middle East and North Africa, risking everything to get on overcrowded boats for a treacherous journey to Europe. Many never make it and no one seems willing to take on the task of helping them. Jackson Proskow reports.
ROME – Survivors of a capsized migrant boat off Libya have told the aid group Save the Children that an estimated 400 people are believed to have drowned. Even before the survivors were interviewed, Italy’s Coast Guard said it assumed that there were many dead given the size of the ship and that nine bodies had been found.
The coast guard had helped rescue some 144 people on Monday and immediately launched an air and sea search operation in hopes of finding others. No other survivors or bodies have been recovered.
On Tuesday, Save the Children said its interviews with survivors who arrived in Reggio Calabria indicated there may have been 400 others who drowned.
The U.N. refugee agency said the toll was likely given the size of the ship.
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