The body of a women and a child were recovered by Italian coastguard after two migrant shipwrecks off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
Around 57 people were rescued, and more than 30 are believed to be missing at sea as of Sunday following two migrant shipwrecks off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, the coastguard said Sunday.
Separately, in a operation 34 migrants were airlifted by helicopter from a cliff in Lampedusa on which they had been stranded since late Friday following another shipwreck, the Italian mountain rescue service said.
In a operation, 34 migrants were airlifted by helicopter from a cliff in Lampedusa on which they had been stranded since late Friday following another shipwreck, the Italian mountain rescue service said. A child and 2 pregnant women were among the rescue, it added.
The Italian coastguard said they carried out a rescue south of Lampedusa on Saturday, picking up the passengers of two sunken migrant boats.
Citing accounts from survivors, Italian media reported that the two boats had departed from Sfax, in Tunisia, and had sunk in rough seas, the Guardian reported.
The country is experiencing a surge in sea migration, with almost 92,000 arrivals so far this year, the interior ministry said of Friday, against around 43,000 in the same period in 2022.
“Whoever allowed the migrants to sail in such bad weather “is a crazy criminal with no scruples”, Provincial police chief Emanuele Ricifari was quoted by local news website Agrigento Oggi as saying.
More than 2,000 people have arrived in Lampedusa in the last few days, the report says
On Sunday, Spanish NGO group Open Arms said it was finally allowed to disembark 195 rescued migrants in the southern Italian port of Brindisi, after more than two days of sailing in rough seas, Reuters reported.
NGOs say this increases their navigation costs, prolongs the misery of survivors, and reduces the amount of time charity ships can patrol areas of the Mediterranean where shipwrecks are more common.
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Updated: 06 Aug 2023, 11:15 PM IST