The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), on Friday said five migrants were believed to have died when a rubber boat sank off the coast of Libya.
Joel Millman, spokesman for the IOM added that reports earlier this week that many more had been killed were wrong.
Millman said that a 16-year old Gambian boy told humanitarian workers on Wednesday he was the only survivor of the wreck.
“Probably believed he was the only survivor because he was still in shock after he was taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“When 140 others disembarked at a different port on Thursday, many of them identified the boy as having been on the same boat.
“So we have pretty good information that this tragedy didn’t occur as was initially reported,’’ Millman told newsmen.
According to him, they tried to be as conservative as possible and only report what they know because this was not one of those cases.
Some 650 migrants are estimated to have died trying to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean so far this year, and arrivals in Italy are up about 30 per cent from the same period in 2016. (Reuters/NAN)
ACO/IEA
