115 bodies recovered after Egypt boat tragedy

Egypt - Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira province, told The Associated Press that dozens more are feared dead.

A senior Egyptian official says a total of 115 bodies have been pulled out of the waters off the Egyptian coast, three days after hundreds of migrants heading to Europe drowned.
Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira province, told The Associated Press that dozens more are feared dead.
Egypt has been a traditional route for migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea. The EU border agency, Frontex, recently said more than 12,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Egypt between January and September this year, compared to 7,000 in the same period last year.
The migrants' boat capsized on Wednesday, nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the Nile Delta port city of Rosetta.
The UNHCR estimates that the boat was packed with some 450 people, while the state news agency MENA said earlier that the number might be as high as 600. Some 150 people, mostly Egyptians, survived while many of the dead are women and children who were unable to swim away from the wreckage.
---
2:50 p.m.
The U.N.'s migration watcher says the death toll among people trying to reach Europe by the Mediterranean this year tops 3,500 and is "rapidly approaching" the record level set last year.
International Organization for Migration spokesman Joel Millman says its count includes at least 51 people who died following a boat capsizing off Rosetta, Egypt, this week. That figure was expected to rise considerably.
IOM says more than 300,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, mostly arriving in Greece and Italy. More than a million crossed in all of 2015, but the rate of deaths is far higher this year.
IOM has been recalculating its estimates of deaths on the Mediterranean last year, but currently believes that at least 3,675 people died on that sea in 2015.
---
1:40 p.m.
The United Nations' human rights chief has criticized Macedonia's treatment of migrants, calling on the country to end its "systematic policy of expulsion and detention."
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed particular concern Friday for 180 migrants living in the transit centers of Tabanovce near the Serbian border and Vinojug near the Greek border since being trapped by Balkan border closures in March.
Zeid said there had been no assessment "of the necessity or proportionality of their de facto detention."
Tabanovce center head Goran Stojanovski told The Associated Press that 61 migrants lived in the center, which was of an open type where residents can leave at any time.
"We are doing whatever we can to provide all necessary medical and other care," Stojanovski said.
---
1:20 p.m.
Greek police say they arrested a young Afghan on suspicion of attempting to smuggle five Iraqis out of the country to Bulgaria.
A police statement Friday said the 19-year-old was arrested while allegedly guiding the Iraqis on foot toward the Bulgarian border.
In the eastern Aegean, 241 people reached Greek islands from the Turkish coast from Thursday morning to Friday morning, government figures showed.
A Greek official says authorities caught 107 people, mainly Syrian families, entering Greece across the Evros river forming the border with Turkey.
The official said the group, which was found Wednesday and taken to refugee camps, apparently took advantage of low water levels on the river to cross. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
---
1:10 p.m.
Dozens of bodies, many decomposed, are being pulled out of the waters off the Egyptian coast three days after hundreds of migrants heading to Europe drowned when their overcrowded boat capsized.
An Associated Press reporter in the Nile Delta city of Rosetta saw between 20 to 30 bodies early Friday morning brought in by fishing boats.
The death toll from the incident is at least 70 and will likely rise. Many of the dead are women and children who were unable to swim away when the boat sank on Wednesday.

• MENA