Over 400 migrants died crossing Mediterranean early in 2023 -UN agency

More than 400 migrants and refugees drowned in early 2023 while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe, the most fatalities in the past six years over a three-month period, a United Nations agency said on Wednesday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) documented 441 migrant deaths between January and March on the world’s deadliest migration route, in what it said was likely an undercount. Around half of those deaths were linked to delays in state-led rescue efforts and, in one case, the absence of any rescue mission, it said.
IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino said, “The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable. With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized. States must respond.”
Thousands of mostly African migrants embark on the dangerous journey from the shores of Libya and Egypt, often in small, inflatable boats, in search of a better life in Europe.