Two migrant shipwrecks off Italy’s southern coast have resulted in the deaths of 11 people and left over 60 missing, including 26 children, according to aid groups, coastguard officials, and U.N. agencies on Monday.
German aid group RESQSHIP, which operates the Nadir rescue boat, reported rescuing 51 individuals from a sinking wooden boat, including two unconscious people. Tragically, they discovered 10 bodies trapped in the vessel’s lower deck. The survivors were transferred to the Italian coastguard and brought ashore on Monday morning, while the Nadir towed the boat with the deceased to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
A joint statement from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and UNICEF revealed that the boat had departed from Libya, carrying migrants from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
The second shipwreck occurred about 200 km (125 miles) east of the Italian region of Calabria. A boat that set off from Turkey caught fire and overturned, resulting in 64 people missing at sea. Eleven individuals were rescued and brought ashore by the Italian coastguard, along with the body of a woman.
Shakilla Mohammadi, a staffer with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), reported that survivors indicated 66 people were unaccounted for, including at least 26 children, some only a few months old. “Entire families from Afghanistan are presumed dead. They left from Turkey eight days ago and had taken in water for three or four days. They told us they had no life vests and some vessels did not stop to help them,” Mohammadi said in a statement.
The U.N. agencies stated that the migrants from the second shipwreck were from Iran, Syria, and Iraq. These incidents underscore the central Mediterranean’s reputation as one of the world’s most perilous migration routes. U.N. data shows that more than 23,500 migrants have died or gone missing in its waters since 2014.
In response to these tragedies, U.N. agencies have called on EU governments to enhance search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean and to expand legal and safe migration channels to prevent migrants from risking their lives at sea. Earlier this month, 11 bodies were recovered from the sea off the coast of Libya, and last year, a migrant boat departing from Turkey crashed into rocks near the town of Cutro in Calabria, resulting in at least 94 deaths.
Melissa Enoch
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