Lampedusa, Italy - Italian coastguards
recovered the bodies of 13 women who died after a crowded
migrant boat capsized in heavy weather as rescue boats
approached it off the coast of Lampedusa, an island south of
Sicily, local authorities said on Monday.
The coastguard said rescue vessels had picked up 22
survivors, but they feared many other people might have died in
the accident - the latest in a long line of sea disasters to hit
migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe.
One of the survivors said she had lost her sister and
eight-month-old niece in the tragedy.
The ship, which had set sail from Tunisia, had been carrying
around 50 people, almost all from Tunisia and west African, the
U.N. migration agency said.
Italian coastguards received an alert late on Sunday that a
boat was in difficulty. Two rescue vessels found the ship, which
was already listing, just after midnight about 6 nautical miles
from the coast of Lampedusa.
"In order to proceed with the transfer operation, the naval
units approached the small boat, but the adverse weather
conditions and the sudden movement of migrants caused the vessel
to overturn," the coastguard said in a statement.
Coffins were lined up on the quay of the small port of
Lampedusa as a coastguard ship entered harbour on Monday,
bringing the bodies to shore.
Italian magistrates have opened an investigation into the
disaster, with a magistrate from Sicily flying to Lampedusa on
Monday to lead the probe.
Charlie Yaxley, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency,
the UNHCR, said more than 1,000 people had died in the
Mediterranean so far this year, most trying to cross from
lawless Libya to Europe.
"This highlights once again that urgent action is needed to
address the situation in the Mediterranean," he said.
The Italian interior ministry says some 7,939 migrants have
reached Italy by boat so far this year, down 63% on the same
period in 2018 and 93% on 2017 levels.
Italy has introduced tough laws over the past year to
dissuade charity rescue ships from operating in the
Mediterranean in an effort to cut back on the number of possible
asylum-seekers reaching the country.
The government has also urged both Tunisia and Libya to do
more to prevent migrant boats from setting sail.
Over the past 18 months, the largest number of migrants
entering Italy have come from Tunisia, a change from previous
years when the new arrivals came mainly from sub-Saharan Africa.
Between Jan. 1 and October 7, the interior ministry said 2,232
Tunisians had reached Italy by boat. The next largest group by
nationality, were Pakistanis, with 997 making the crossing,
followed by migrants from the Ivory Coast, who totalled 867.