At least two migrants have died after the boat they were trying to cross the Mediterranean on Saturday night capsized and sank. About twenty other people on board are still missing, the German NGO ResQship reported on Sunday.
The vessel capsized between Tunisia and Italy. The German NGO’s ship managed to save 22 people on board. They landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday afternoon, reports Stefen Seyfert, a ResQship representative. These are men, women and children, mainly from Ivory Coast, Mali and Cameroon. The bodies of two men were pulled from the water.
In total, about 40 migrants were on the boat, which departed from the port city of Sfax in Tunisia. The migrants would have paid the equivalent of 900 euros per person to travel to Europe by boat. In recent days, thousands of migrants have arrived on Lampedusa, an island off the coast of Tunisia. They arrived with their own boats or with boats from the Italian Coast Guard.
More than 14,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry. Last year there were just over 5,300 in the same period, in 2021 4,300.
Four migrants were also killed last Saturday. Two weeks ago, about thirty people died while crossing from Tunisia to Italy. It was then two boats that sank shortly after each other.
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