Search underway for up to 20 missing people.
At least 20 people died after two boats carrying around 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island in the Mediterranean sea, on Wednesday.
The first eight bodies recovered from the sea were reportedly those of a newborn baby girl, two adult men, two women, and three teenagers (two males and one female).
There were believed to have been around 100 people on board the boats, of Egyptian, Somali, Pakistani and Sudanese citizenship, according to Italian media reports.
The Italian Red Cross confirmed that “60 people survived, including 56 men and four women”.
Up to 20 people were still missing on Wednesday afternoon, with a complex rescue mission being carried out by the Italian coast guard, finance police and Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency.
According to initial testimony from survivors, the two boats departed Zawiya in Libya on Tuesday evening, heading for Sicily.
One of the two vessels reportedly began taking on water and subsequently capsized, about 20 kilometres southwest of Lampedusa.
Some of the migrants managed to transfer to the other boat, but many fell into the water. However the second boat, being suddenly overloaded, also capsized.
Filippo Ungaro, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHRC, expressed “deep anguish” over the tragedy, noting that so far this year 675 deaths have been recorded in the central Mediterranean.
Italy’s interior minister Matteo Piantedosi, who has pushed through a crackdown on illegal migration, said in a post on X that the disaster “once again confirms the urgency of preventing dangerous sea journeys, starting from the places of departure, and of relentlessly combating the ruthless profiteering of human traffickers that fuels this phenomenon.”
Piantedosi said the tragedy occurred “despite the presence of a rescue force in operational readiness, composed of various national assets and private naval units,” adding: “It is our duty to continue, with determination and firmness, to combat this shameful trade in human lives and to protect those at risk of being its victims.”
Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has been actively working with north African countries to stem migration flows, signing deals aimed at curbing irregular departures and strengthening border control.
Since 2014 more than 31,000 people have disappeared or died trying to make the perilous sea crossing between north Africa and Italy and Malta, according to the International Organization for Migration.
This is a developing story…
Photo credit: MikeDotta / Shutterstock.com.
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