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October 4, 2013

At Least 130 African Migrants Die in Boat Tragedy 
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At least 130 African migrants have died after a boat bringing them to
Europe caught fire, capsized and sank off the coast of Italy's Lampedusa
island. More than 100 bodies have been recovered and 150 people rescued,
while some 200 are missing. The migrants are reportedly from Eritrea and
Somalia. A spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency called the incident
"appalling."

Adrian Edwards: "Our thoughts right now are with the families and the
people affected themselves. But you have to think of the tragedy that
lies behind this which is that many people are likely to have been
fleeing war and persecution, seeing human rights abuses in their own
countries. So this is a tremendous tragedy on multiple layers."

 

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