On 21st September 2016, a rescue boat from near the Egyptian coast, capsized and sent 600 of its immigrant passengers into the deep waters.
It all happened in the Mediterranean Sea off Burg Rashid, a place near the Beheira province. Till now only 31 bodies have been found – 20 men, 10 women and 1 child – while the search and rescue for more is going on. As the day dawned, 12 more bodies were pulled out making the total to 43.
Although 100 or so have been rescued, still there is no sign of the 400 more immigrants who were travelling in that boat which was carrying Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somalian immigrants. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has looked into the matter and said that the rescue operations will go on with full force and those responsible will be held accountable.
The boat was supposedly trying to reach Italy from Egypt where there has been increasing number of cases of human-trafficking. This year alone, more than 200 thousand people have migrated to other lands through the Mediterranean Sea of which at least 2,800 have perished. The number of migrants has been increasing per year and now along with the treacherous waters of the journey, they will be met with stricter EU control at the borders.
