LAMPEDUSA – At least 26 migrants seeking to reach European shores have died after two boats sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, on Wednesday, according to UN agencies.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said more refugees and migrants could be missing as search operations continue.
Rescue services have so far rescued 60 survivors, with 56 men and four women brought ashore to Lampedusa, according to the Italian Red Cross and UNHCR.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), said around 95 people had been travelling on the two vessels.
Given that 60 people had been rescued, “approximately 35 victims are feared dead or missing”, he wrote on social media, as seen by Al Jazeera outlet.
The sea disaster, involving people travelling from Libya, was the latest to befall refugees and migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe.
Rights groups and UN agencies have also documented systematic abuse against refugees and migrants in Libya, including torture, rape and extortion.
In February, Libyan authorities uncovered nearly 50 bodies from two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, in the latest horror involving people seeking to make it to Europe through the North African country.
Since the beginning of this year, 675 people have died in the central Mediterranean while trying to make the crossing, said Filippo Ungaro, a UNHCR spokesperson in Italy.
An Italian law enforcement aircraft spotted a capsized boat with bodies in the water about 23km (14 miles) off Lampedusa on Wednesday morning, triggering a rescue operation, a source close to the matter told the Reuters news agency.
According to a Reuters source, the migrants departed from the Tripoli area in Libya in the early morning aboard two boats. One of the boats began taking on water, and they transferred to the other vessel, which later capsized in rough waters.
Cristina Palma, who works for the Italian Red Cross in Lampedusa, said in a video statement that the survivors were in “decent” health, but four of them had been hospitalised for checks.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has vowed to block the refugee and migrant sea journeys from Africa and has passed measures against human smugglers, including tougher jail terms, and has urged allies to do more to curb the migration attempts