No less than 26 individuals have died and round a dozen are lacking after a ship carrying almost 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Lampedusa, the Italian coastguard and UN businesses mentioned.
Sixty survivors have been taken to a centre on the Italian island, mentioned Filippo Ungaro, a spokesman for the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Italy.
There have been as much as 97 migrants on board when the boat departed Libya, in response to survivor accounts.
Authorities have been nonetheless trying to find any remaining survivors.
An Italian legislation enforcement plane noticed a capsized boat with our bodies within the water about 14 miles (23km) off Lampedusa on Wednesday morning, triggering a rescue operation, the coastguard mentioned in an announcement.
It additionally mentioned 5 ships, two plane and one helicopter have been working on the rescue website.
The coastguard mentioned 26 deaths had been confirmed up to now however that was “provisional and being updated”.
Cristina Palma, who works for the Italian Crimson Cross in Lampedusa, mentioned in a video assertion that the survivors – 56 males and 4 girls – have been in “decent” well being however 4 of them had been hospitalised for checks.
Based mostly on survivor accounts, about 95 migrants left the Tripoli space of Libya on two boats, Worldwide Organisation for Migration spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo mentioned.
When one of many two vessels began to tackle water, all of the passengers have been transferred to the opposite boat – fabricated from fibreglass – which then capsized in worldwide waters due to overloading, he mentioned.
It was not instantly recognized how lengthy the migrants had been at sea.
Picture:
Migrants on a fibreglass boat off the coast of Lampedusa in July. Pic: Reuters
Italian PM’s ‘robust sense of dismay’
Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino mentioned the catastrophe occurred “presumably at dawn”.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who made combating unlawful immigration a prime precedence of her right-wing authorities, pledged on Wednesday to proceed combating “unscrupulous traffickers” by “preventing irregular departures” and “managing migration flows”.
She mentioned in an announcement: “When a tragedy like this occurs, with the deaths of dozens of people in the waters of the Mediterranean, a strong sense of dismay and compassion arises in all of us… That today’s tragedy occurred despite a ready and operational international response warns us that the necessary rescue effort is not sufficient and, above all, does not address the root causes of this tragic problem.”
A complete of 675 migrants have died making the perilous central Mediterranean crossing up to now this 12 months, not counting the most recent sinking, in response to the UNHCR.
“Deep anguish over yet another shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors,” Mr Ungaro wrote on the X social media website.
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From Tuesday: Recent wave of migrants arrive at Dover
Tens of hundreds die making crossing
A complete of 30,060 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by sea within the first six months of 2025 – a 16% improve in contrast with the identical interval final 12 months, in response to the UNHCR.
The irregular migration route from northern Africa to southern Europe is taken into account one of the crucial harmful on this planet, with virtually 24,500 individuals dying or disappearing on the Mediterranean crossing up to now 10 years, in response to the Worldwide Organisation for Migration.
Many of the deaths have been attributed to small boats setting off from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.
The deadliest migrant boat catastrophe off the coast of Lampedusa occurred on 3 October 2013, when a vessel carrying greater than 500 migrants from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana caught hearth and capsized, killing a minimum of 368 individuals.
The tragedy prompted worldwide requires motion to deal with the disaster.
The sinking off the coast of Lampedusa comes a day after figures confirmed greater than 50,000 migrants have crossed the Channel from France to the UK since Sir Keir Starmer turned prime minister.
House Workplace statistics reveal that 474 individuals arrived on Monday in eight vessels – the best quantity to make the journey in in the future in August.
