SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Six Asylum seekers were found dead on a migrant boat on Monday due to thirst, hunger, and severe burns in Mediterranean waters trying to reach Italy.
Six Asylum seekers who were origins from Syria were found dead on a migrant boat that arrived on Monday in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
Three children were included among the dead, they died of thirst, hunger, and severe burns, according to UNHCR.
“They died of thirst, hunger, and severe burns. This is unacceptable,” the UNHCR’s representative to Italy, Chiara Cardoletti, wrote on Twitter. “Strengthening rescue at sea is the only way to prevent these tragedies.”
The UNHCR said in a statement the dead were among a group of 26 people who had been on the boat for days. It added that two of the dead children were aged 1 or 2, while the other child was 12. The bodies of a mother and grandmother were also recovered.
Another woman and her daughter were airlifted from the boat to a hospital on the nearby island of Malta on Sunday, the UNHCR said.
The U.N. agency said more than 1,200 people have died or vanished this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe.
