11 dead, over 60 missing in shipwrecks off Italian coast

Source: National Herald

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"Searches for possible survivors of the shipwreck of the sailing boat continue," the coast guard said in a statement.

The Coast Guard specified that two Italian patrol boats and an ATR42 aircraft were currently involved in the search, and another patrol ship with medical teams on board would soon join them in the area. As of Monday evening, no more survivors have been found.

The 66 people who are feared dead include 26 minors, according to local media citing sources among medical staff.

According to the survivors' statement, the sailing boat departed from Turkey last week, carrying migrants and refugee seekers from Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation into the shipwreck, the latest in a long string of deadly incidents involving economic migrants and refugees attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.

In an earlier incident, a rescue ship with the German aid group Resqship found 10 migrants dead and managed to save 51 others on board a boat in distress off the waters of Malta, not far from Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island.

The survivors were mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria, according to Rai News 24. The ship was ordered by the Italian Interior Ministry to dock in Lampedusa, where survivors would receive assistance.

Migrants travelling by boat through the central Mediterranean Sea face dangerous conditions and high mortality rates due to weather conditions and poor-quality vessels. Nearly one thousand people have died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean so far this year, and 3,155 in 2023, according to the United Nations' International Organisation for Migration.