TRIPOLI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Sunday that it was saddened by reports of nearly 170 immigrants killed or missing in the Mediterranean.
"UNHCR is deeply saddened at emerging reports of an estimated 170 people who either died or went missing in two separate shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea," UNHCR said in a statement.
Some 53 people have died on the Alboran Sea in western Mediterranean in one of the shipwrecks, while 117 people were reported dead or missing in the other shipwreck in the central Mediterranean, according to the statement.
More than 2,200 immigrants died while crossing the Mediterranean toward Europe in 2018, the commission said.
Libya is a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants who want to cross the Mediterranean toward Europe because of the state of insecurity and chaos in the North African country.
