By Alberto Chiumento and Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) -Seven folks had been rescued and 21 folks had been lacking at sea after a migrant shipwreck off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard mentioned on Wednesday.
The survivors, all male Syrian nationals, had been picked up from a semi-sunken boat about 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometres) southwest of Lampedusa, an announcement mentioned.
They 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 coast guard mentioned it had taken the survivors to Lampedusa and had deployed naval and air items to search for the lacking folks.
The Italian workplace of UN refugee company UNHCR instructed Reuters that Sudanese folks had been additionally on the boat, which is believed to have departed from the port of Sabratha, west of Tripoli.
The top of UNHCR Italy, Chiara Cardoletti, wrote on X that the survivors had been in “critical” situation and had misplaced family at sea.
The boat “capsized repeatedly, leaving people clinging to the side of the boat as their family members drowned around them,” Nicola Dell (NYSE:)’Arciprete, UNICEF nation coordinator for Italy, mentioned in an announcement.
The central Mediterranean is among the many world’s deadliest migration routes. Based on the U.N. migration company (IOM), 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 most recent figures from the Italian inside ministry recorded that simply over 43,000 migrants had reached Italy up to now in 2024, nicely down from earlier years.
