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MIGRANT CRISIS

At least 30 migrants missing in shipwrecks off Italy

At least 30 migrants are missing following two shipwrecks off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to survivor testimony, the UN's migration agency said on Sunday.

At least 30 migrants missing in shipwrecks off Italy
This file aerial photo shows the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Meditteranean Sea, which in recent years has been an arrival point for migrants crossing from North Africa. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

Around 28 people were reported lost at sea by survivors on one boat, while three were reported missing from the second, after both went down in stormy weather on Saturday, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Both were rickety iron boats believed to have set off from Sfax in Tunisia on Thursday.

Cultural mediators with the IOM believed there were “at least 30 people missing” after speaking to the survivors, press officer Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP.

An investigation into the shipwrecks has been opened in Agrigento, on the nearby Italian island of Sicily.

Agrigento’s chief of police Emanuele Ricifari said the traffickers would have known rough seas were forecast.

“Whoever allowed them, or forced them, to leave with this sea is an unscrupulous criminal lunatic,” he told Italian media.

“Rough seas are forecast for the next few days. Let’s hope they stop. It’s sending them to slaughter with this sea,” he said.

Trapped

As the stormy weather continued, fire brigade and alpine rescue teams were preparing on Sunday to pull to safety some 20 migrants trapped on a rocky part of Lampedusa’s coastline.

The migrants have been there since late Friday, after their boat was tossed onto the rocks by strong winds. They have been provided with food, water, clothes and emergency thermal blankets by the Red Cross, but the coastguard has been unable to rescue them by sea due to the high waves.

Should the winds not drop, rescuers will begin winching them up the 140-metre (460 foot) high cliff to safety, media reports said.

READ ALSO: ‘More will drown’: Italy accused of breaking international law on migrant rescues

The Central Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe is the world’s deadliest. Over 1,800 people have died attempting it so far this year, Di Giacomo said — almost 900 more than last year.

“The truth is that figure is likely to be much higher. Lots of bodies are being found at sea, suggesting there are many shipwrecks we never hear about,” he said.

The number of bodies found has increased in particular on the so-called Tunisian route, which has become increasingly dangerous, Di Flavio said, because of the type of boats used.

Sub-Saharan migrants are being put out to sea by traffickers “in iron boats which cost less than the usual wooden ones, but are utterly unseaworthy, they easily break up and sink”, he said.

Migrants also often have the engines stolen from their boats at sea, so that traffickers can re-use them.

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy migrant shipwreck toll at 34 as more bodies found

Italy's coastguard said Friday it had found another 14 bodies after a migrant shipwreck off the southern coast earlier this week, taking the confirmed death toll to 34.

Italy migrant shipwreck toll at 34 as more bodies found

More than 60 people had been reported missing after the sailing boat sank off the coast of Calabria overnight Sunday-Monday, with 11 people rescued.

“Today 14 bodies were recovered.. a total of 34 bodies have been recovered,” the coastguard said in a statement.

It said air and sea searches continued for the missing.

The coastguard had on Thursday reported another 12 bodies had been found, including women and children.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said earlier this week that survivors had reported 66 people missing, including at least 26 children.

They had set off from Turkey and sank around 120 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria. Afghan families were among the missing, MSF said.

Ten bodies were found in a separate shipwrecked migrant boat on Monday off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to German aid group ResQship.

Some 3,155 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean last year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

More than 1,000 have died or are missing so far this year.

The Central Mediterranean — the area between North Africa and Italy and Malta — is the deadliest known migration route in the world, accounting for 80 percent of the deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean.

Many migrants set off by boat from Tunisia or Libya, with Italy often their first port of call.

Arrivals have dropped considerably this year, with almost 24,500 people landing in Italy so far, compared to more than 58,600 in the same period in 2023, according to the interior ministry.

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