Not less than seven folks rescued about 10 nautical miles (18.5km) southwest of Lampedusa after boat capsized in tough climate.
Seven folks have been rescued and 21 others stay lacking at sea after the boat they had been travelling in capsized off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard has mentioned.
The survivors, all Syrian nationals, had been picked up from a semi-sunken boat about 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometres) southwest of Lampedusa, an announcement mentioned on Wednesday.
Chiara Cardoletti, head of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Italy, wrote on X that the survivors had been in “essential” situation and had misplaced family members at sea.
The survivors instructed rescuers that they had set off on Sunday from Libya, and that 21 of the 28 folks that they had aboard, together with three youngsters, had fallen into the ocean throughout tough climate.
The boat “capsized repeatedly, leaving folks clinging to the facet of the boat as their members of the family drowned round them,” Nicola Dell’Arciprete, nation coordinator for Italy for the UN Kids’s Fund (UNICEF), mentioned in an announcement.
The Italian workplace of the UN refugee company instructed the Reuters information company that Sudanese folks had been additionally on the boat, which is believed to have departed from the port of Sabratha, west of Tripoli.
The coast guard mentioned it had taken the survivors to Lampedusa and had deployed naval and air models to search for the lacking folks.
The central Mediterranean is among the many world’s deadliest migration routes.
In response to the Worldwide Group for Migration, greater than 2,500 migrants died or went lacking making an attempt the crossing final yr, and 1,047 this yr, as of Tuesday.
The newest figures from the Italian Ministry of the Inside recorded that greater than 43,000 migrants had reached Italy up to now in 2024, nicely down from earlier years.
