At least 20 refugees and migrants die in shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa

There are 60 survivors from the perilous travel from Libya, but a UN bureau says determination could beryllium much radical missing.

At slightest 20 radical person died successful a shipwreck disconnected the confederate Italian land of Lampedusa, and a United Nations bureau says much refugees and migrants could beryllium missing arsenic hunt operations continue.

Rescue services connected Wednesday recovered 20 bodies, portion 60 survivors, 56 men and 4 women, were brought ashore to Lampedusa, according to the Italian Red Cross and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The disaster, involving radical travelling from Libya, was the latest to befall refugees and migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe.

Rights groups and UN agencies person besides documented systematic maltreatment against refugees and migrants successful Libya, including torture, rape and extortion. In February, Libyan authorities uncovered astir 50 bodies from 2 wide graves successful the country’s southeastern desert, successful the latest fearfulness involving radical seeking to marque it to Europe done the North African country.

Since the opening of this year, 675 radical person died successful the cardinal Mediterranean portion trying to marque the crossing, said Filippo Ungaro, a UNHCR spokesperson successful Italy.

An Italian instrumentality enforcement craft spotted a capsized vessel with bodies successful the h2o astir 23km (14 miles) disconnected Lampedusa connected Wednesday morning, triggering a rescue operation, a root adjacent to the substance told the Reuters quality agency.

The Reuters root said that based connected archetypal accounts from the rescued people, they departed from the Tripoli country successful Libya successful the aboriginal greeting aboard 2 boats. One of the boats began taking connected water, and they transferred to the different vessel, which aboriginal capsized successful unsmooth waters.

Initial UNHCR figures suggested that 92 to 97 radical were successful the group, indicating arsenic galore arsenic 17 radical were missing.

Cristina Palma, who works for the Italian Red Cross successful Lampedusa, said successful a video connection that the survivors were successful “decent” health, but 4 of them had been hospitalised for checks.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing authorities has vowed to artifact the exile and migrant oversea journeys from Africa and has passed measures against quality smugglers, including tougher jailhouse terms, and has urged allies to bash much to curb the migration attempts.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies