LOC18:31
15:31 GMT
ROME, April 19 (KUNA) -- Spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Carlotta Sami warned Sunday of further humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean, calling for promoting cooperation and coordination to rescue migrants.
She voiced in a press statement her sorrow over the capsizing of a fishing boat carrying about 700 Syrian migrants on Saturday, around 70 miles from the Libyan coast, south of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
At least 28 people were rescued and 24 bodies recovered.
According to the testimony of a survivor, she said, the boat sent a distress call before sinking in the sea due to stampede of migrants toward a Portuguese container ship trying to rescue them.
It will be a major disaster and catastrophe that the Mediterranean has never seen, if the migrants die, she noted.
At least 17 Italian naval units, merchant ships in the area and aircraft from the navy and coast guard are searching for the migrants in coordination with the Italian coast guard in Rome. (end)
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