A two-year-old girl died and eight people were reported missing following a migrant shipwreck on Monday near the island of Lampedusa, Italy’s foreign minister said.
Lampedusa sits in the Mediterranean between Tunisia, Malta and the larger Italian island of Sicily and is a first port of call for many migrants seeking to reach the EU.
“We rescued 42 people. But a two-year-old girl unfortunately died on the rescue vessel shortly before arriving at port,” Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday in the lower house of parliament.
Eight people are missing according to survivors’ accounts, Tajani said, adding that rescue boats and helicopters were still searching for them.
The AGI news agency said two children were among those unaccounted for. Another news agency, Adnkronos, said 11 migrant vessels landed on Monday, bringing to Lampedusa more than 800 people.
Italy is experiencing a surge in sea migration with nearly 150,000 arrivals so far this year, compared to around 94,000 in the same period of 2022, according to interior ministry data last updated on Monday.
The Central Mediterranean sea crossing from North Africa to Italy or Malta is one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 2,200 people died or went missing in the year to date while attempting this journey.
(Reuters)
