Two dead as Italian crews rescue dozens of migrants from multiple shipwrecks off country’s southern coast
Fox News
Two migrant ships that wrecked off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa have resulted in two confirmed deaths and around 30 missing people, according to the reports.
Reuters reported that according to the Italian Coast Guard, 57 people had been rescued during the efforts.
Italy is facing a major increase in migrants arriving by sea, and according to the interior ministry, there have been nearly 92,000 arrivals since the start of the year.
During the same period last year, the country had received about 43,000 migrants by sea, or nearly half the amount.
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On Saturday, the Italian Coast Guard conducted a “complex” rescue near Lampedusa, during which migrants of two sunken boats were picked up.
It is believed the two boats came from the city of Sfax in Tunisia, where a migration crisis is underway.
The coastguard said in a statement that the two dead migrants were a woman and a child, while the Italian news wire Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) said the bodies were those of a woman and a child of about 18 months old.
ANSA also reported that survivors said one of the ships was carrying 48 people, while the other had 42.
The rescues and retrievals occurred about 23 nautical miles south-west of Lampedusa, ANSA said.
Another operation was conducted by the Italian Mountain Rescue Service, with 34 migrants being airlifted from a cliff in Lampedusa. The migrants had been stranded on the cliff since Friday, following another shipwreck.
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Reuters reported that over 2,000 people arrived in Lampedusa over the last few days after being rescued at sea by Italian patrol boats and other non-governmental organization (NGO) groups, despite intense winds around the island.
Open Arms, a Spanish NGO group, said Sunday it was allowed to disembark 195 rescued migrants in the Italian port of Brindisi, after a couple of days of sailing around in rough seas.
Because of a policy in Italy by the country’s right-wing government, charity ships are assigned far-away ports instead of ports that are closer, to help spread new arrivals around the country.
This, in turn, increases navigational costs for NGOs and the amount of misery survivors endure.
Reuters contributed to this report.