At least 22 migrants died after two boats overturned in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, with more still missing and some 60 survivors, humanitarian agencies said.
The disaster was the latest in the dangerous central Mediterranean, where most migrants seeking to reach Europe cross in leaky or overcrowded boats, especially in the warm weather of the summer months.
The number of people confirmed dead was currently at 22, a spokesman for Italy’s Red Cross, which manages Lampedusa’s migrant reception centre said. Fifty-six men and four women survived the disaster, the Red Cross said. It said it was still unclear how many people had been on the two boats that left from Zawiya, Libya, west of Tripoli on Tuesday evening.
Details of the disaster were scarce but Italian news agency ANSA said that after one of the boats that departed together began to capsize, some migrants moved to the other, which became overloaded and began taking on water, according to survivors’ accounts.
ANSA said among the first to be transported to the Lampedusa mortuary were the bodies of a newborn, three children, two men and two women.
“Deep anguish for the umpteenth shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors. It looks to be 20 bodies found and as many missing,” wrote Filippo Ungaro, spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency, on social media.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi confirmed the disaster, saying the shipwreck occurred 14 nautical miles from Lampedusa.
Various news outlets put the number of migrants in the boats at about 97 people.
News agencies said that a plane from Italy’s financial police first spotted the migrants in the water.
The UNHCR said Wednesday there have been 675 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route so far this year.
As of Wednesday, 38,263 migrants have arrived on Italy’s shores this year, according to the interior ministry.
Piantedosi wrote on social media that the episode underscored “the urgency of preventing, from the countries of departure, the dangerous sea journeys and of relentlessly combating the ruthless trafficking business that fuels this phenomenon.
The hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cut deals with North African countries from which migrants embark, providing funding and training in exchange for help in stemming departures.
By Agencies
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