Approximately fifty migrants are missing after their sailing boat capsized around one hundred miles off the Calabrian coast, Italian coastguard sources reported on Monday.
A merchant ship rescued 12 migrants and transferred them to a Coast Guard unit, which subsequently brought them to Roccella Ionica in Calabria. The body of a woman who fell into the sea and died also arrived at the port. The search for the missing migrants is ongoing.
Survivors of the shipwreck reported that among the 50-60 missing, there were around 26 children. “I spoke to a young man who lost his girlfriend. Survivors spoke of 66 people missing, including at least 26 children, some only a few months old,” said Shakilla Mohammadi, an intercultural mediator for Doctors without Borders, who was present in Roccella Ionica where the survivors landed.
Mohammadi added, “Entire families from Afghanistan are said to be dead. They left Turkey eight days ago and had been taking on water for three or four days. They told us that they were traveling without life jackets and that some boats did not stop to help them. The scene was heartbreaking; the pain was palpable as we faced traumatised people.”
Unconscious migrants freed by an axe
On Monday, the ship Nadir, operated by the German migrant rescue NGO RESQSHIP, rescued 51 people from a wooden boat in distress off the coast of Libya, south of Lampedusa. They discovered 10 dead bodies in the boat’s flooded lower deck. The charity stated on X: “#Nadir is currently caring for 51 people on board. The rescue came too late for 10 people. A total of 61 people were on the wooden boat, which was full of water. Our crew was able to evacuate 51 people, two of whom were unconscious—they had to be cut free with an axe.”
Alarm Phone, a hotline for people in distress while crossing the Mediterranean, posted on X: “We were alerted to a boat in distress, carrying about 60 people. Not EU authorities but the small Nadir offered assistance. Unfortunately, they came too late for the 10 people who died in the lower deck. EU borders continue to kill!”
If confirmed, these latest shipwrecks would bring the number of dead and missing in the central Mediterranean in 2024 to over 800. That averages almost 5 dead and missing per day since the start of the year. These figures are according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the IOM – International Organisation for Migration, and UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund.
Additionally, on Sunday night, 173 people, including three minors, arrived on three boats in Lampedusa. The vessels had departed from Zawia in Libya and carried migrants from Bangladesh, Sudan, Syria, and Egypt.
In August, people rescued from such boats will be processed at the migrant centres operated in Albania.
