Advertisement

In Less Than A Week, More Than 1,000 People Drowned In The Mediterranean

04:43
Download Audio
Resume
In this Friday, May 27, 2016 photo, a Sea-Watch humanitarian organization crew member holds a drowned migrant baby, during a rescue operation off the coasts of Libya. (Christian Buttner/EIKON NORD GMBH GERMANY via AP)
In this Friday, May 27, 2016 photo, a Sea-Watch humanitarian organization crew member holds a drowned migrant baby, during a rescue operation off the coasts of Libya. (Christian Buttner/EIKON NORD GMBH GERMANY via AP)

At least 1,000 people died in the Mediterranean Sea in the past week, according to the International Organization for Migration. Many of them were on three different boats that capsized and sank last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. All three were crammed with refugees and migrants trying to make their way from Libya to Italy.

The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, says that last week was the deadliest week on the Mediterranean Sea since April 2015, when more than 1,300 people died.

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti talks with Ruby Hartbrich of Sea-Watch, a German non-governmental organization that operates a search-and-rescue ship in the Mediterranean.

Guest

This segment aired on May 31, 2016.

Advertisement

More from Here & Now

Listen Live
Close