More than 42 people have drowned after a migrant boat capsized off the Egyptian coast on Wednesday. Ferrying around 600 passengers, the boat capsized off the coast of Kafr al-Sheikh and around 150 people have been rescued till now, officials said.
This incident comes after the head of the EU’s border agency warned that increasing numbers of Europe-bound migrants are using Egypt as a departure point and the boat was transporting Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants, said a Reuters report.
Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said the number of bodies recovered had reached 42 after officials earlier told Reuters that the bodies of 20 men, 10 women and one child had been retrieved.
Sudanese and “other African nationalities” are among the dead, AFP news agency reports.
It is not clear where the planned final destination was, although officials said the boat was probably heading for Italy.
Human rights researchers last month warned of a “devastating” lack of information for families of migrants thought to have drowned in the Mediterranean.
They say more than 6,600 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015 and the first half of this year.
