11 immigrants dead and more than 60 missing

New tragedy in the Mediterranean, this time twice. Two shipwrecks in front to the Italian coasts This Monday they have claimed the lives of at least eleven immigrants while searching for 66 who have disappearedas reported by authorities and NGOs

One of the boats, a precarious wooden boat “full of water” with 61 people on board, was located south of the island of Lampedusa by the NGO Resqship rescuing 51 immigrants alive.

The NGO confirmed on social networks the discovery of ten bodiesall of them located inside the warehouse, which was flooded with water.

On the other hand, the Italian Coast Guard reported the rescue of twelve other migrants who were on a sailboat about 120 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria, in the Ionian Sea. According to the first investigations, this vessel would have left Turkey.

in the tragedy “entire families” would have died what were they from Afghanistan, which began sailing with a sailboat from Türkiye about eight days ago, as reported Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Coast Guard and Frontex personnel are searching the area for possible missing persons, given the possibility that several dozen more people could travel on the same boat.

According to a statement signed by the Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the missing could be up to 66.

Five deaths a day

If these data are confirmed, they would already be more than 800 migrants and refugees have died so far this year in the central Mediterranean area, which represents an average of almost five victims a day.

Just a week ago, the central Mediterranean was the scene of another tragedy when at least 17 bodies appeared floating in the sea and 12 of them were recovered by the NGO ships Geo Barents and Ocean Viking.

The NGOs then denounced the “devastating and reckless European migration policies” and of non-assistance to people who undertake the Mediterranean route”.

So far this year until June 14, 23,235 migrants have arrived on Italian shores, compared to 55,662 in the same period of the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.