At the least 11 folks have died and greater than 60 are lacking because of two shipwrecks off the coast of southern Italy, rescuers say.
German charity RESQSHIP mentioned it picked up 51 folks from a sinking, picket boat and located 10 our bodies trapped within the decrease deck close to the island of Lampedusa on Monday.
In a separate incident on the identical day, greater than 60 folks had been reported lacking, with 26 of them feared to be kids, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) mentioned.
The boats had been carrying migrants who had set off from Libya and Turkey, UN companies mentioned.
Survivors of the shipwreck close to Lampedusa had been handed over to the Italian coastguard and brought ashore on Monday morning, whereas the deceased had been being towed to the island, in accordance with RESQSHIP.
The boat had set off from Libya, and was carrying migrants from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the UN refugee company UNHCR, the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM) and UN kids’s company UNICEF mentioned in a joint assertion.
The opposite shipwreck was positioned about 125 miles off the coast of Calabria in southern Italy, the companies mentioned.
One of many surviving 12 folks died after disembarking, the Italian coastguard mentioned.
MSF’s Shakilla Mohammadi mentioned she heard from survivors that 66 folks had been unaccounted for, together with a minimum of 26 kids, some only some months outdated.
“Complete households from Afghanistan are presumed lifeless. They left from Turkey eight days in the past and had taken in water for 3 or 4 days. They instructed us they’d no life vests and a few vessels didn’t cease to assist them,” she mentioned in an announcement.
The Mediterranean is the deadliest identified migration route on this planet.
Greater than 23,500 migrants have died or gone lacking in its waters since 2014, in accordance with UN knowledge.
