An abandoned boat containing the personal belongings and documentation of three Somali citizens, but no people, washed up on Israel’s Mediterranean shore early Sunday morning, Israel Police announced.Authorities said they found the dinghy along the coast near Netanya. Police maritime units scanned the nearby area in hopes of locating the missing persons.Police said they were searching the waters for signs of survivors and released a photograph of the boat, although it appears likely that the passengers have drowned. What looked like clothing, an air pump and several makeshift, inflatable lifebuoys were among the items that covered the boat’s floor.
The travel documents, among them the passport of a three-year-old child, are still being investigated, police said. Documents belonging to Turkish citizens were also found, Israeli media reported.Senior police officials raised a security issue, questioning how a boat carrying foreign bodies could have made it into Israeli waters. “Terrorists could just as well have arrived and carried out an attack,” Israeli media reported a senior police official saying. “Where is the navy? They should have gotten on top of it.”
Maritime migration statistics stagger throughout the Mediterranean region, rarely reaching Israel's shoreline
Maritime migration statistics stagger throughout the Mediterranean region, rarely reaching Israel’s shorelineAccording to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, more than 187,000 people crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, and the group has recorded 2,093 deaths along the central Mediterranean route.The migrants often make the perilous crossing in small, unstable boats. Many come from Africa, fleeing conflict or in search of a better life in Europe.Tal Spungin and Reuters contributed to this report.