Italy recovers 217 bodies from 2015 migrant shipwreck

The wreck of a fishing boat that sank in April 2015, drowning hundreds of migrants packed on board, is seen after being raised in the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, Italy, July 1, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Rome: Italian emergency workers have recovered 217 bodies from the wreck of a boat that sank in the Mediterranean in April 2015, killing some 500 migrants, the Navy said on Thursday.

The sinking was one of the worst known disasters involving migrants trying to reach Europe by sea. Thousands of people a year, many of them fleeing war in the Middle East, have crossed the Mediterranean in unseaworthy or overcrowded boats.