Italian coast guard rescues 22 migrants, 9 bodies found
Italy’s coast guard rescued 22 people and recovered nine bodies after a vessel capsized in a storm around 50km (30 miles) south of Lampedusa island on April 11th, according to AP. With summer approaching, a surge in people attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing is expected amid increasingly hostile policy towards migrant rescue in Italy.
The bodies recovered by the coast guard include a six-month-old and eight men, with six treated for severe hypothermia and dehydration.
Two remain hospitalized.
Survivors said the boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia on the night of April 7th carrying people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. The vessel purportedly capsized on April 10th in waves reaching 5m (16ft) in height.
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“The group became very agitated when the engine broke down and they were left adrift,’’ the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.
Following to rough-sea-rescue, Italy’s coast guard said it continued air surveillance of the area, which falls under Maltese jurisdiction.
In separate incidents, a further 27 people attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing were rescued on April 11th by the Italian coast guard and 45 others are missing, feared dead after the sinking of another migrant vessel on April 10th, according to Reuters.
The number of Mediterranean crossing attempts typically increases as the summer approaches, raising concerns around more potential shipwrecks as Italian ports restrict charities’ rescue operations.
UNHRC’s Italy spokesperson, Federico Fossi, said that “with the arrival of the summer season, we can expect more incidents at sea, as more and more people are leaving with completely unseaworthy metal boats, as we are seeing in these weeks.’’
Italy’s far-right-majority government is directing refugee charity vessels to report to northern Italian ports after each rescue, reducing their operational capacity, while impounding vessels that fail to conform.
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The International Organization for Migration put the number of migrants missing in the central Mediterranean at 385 in 2024 so far, with a total of 23,109 since the launch of the Missing Migrants Project in 2014.
AP / Reuters
