More than 20 people are missing after attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa. Hundreds of others were rescued and brought to Italy by the coast guard and the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship.
Over 800 people have reached the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa on Sunday and Monday (April 23-24). Within just 24 hours, 21 separate migrant boats attempted the crossing, the ANSA news agency reported. A fishing boat managed to rescue 34 survivors from one boat, which sank in international waters near the island overnight, resulting in one death. The survivors said 20 others were still missing from the boat, which had set out from Tunisia on Saturday night (April 22).
The rescued people were taken on board a patrol boat of the Italian coast guard and brought to Lampedusa's initial reception center, which has space for around 400 people but is overcrowded due to previous arrivals.
Last week Italian authorities used commercial ferries and military vessels to transfer migrants who had been rescued from Lampedusa to Sicily or the mainland. Those transfers brought Lampedusa’s reception center below its capacity, but the number has now grown again to nearly 1,100, according to news reports.
120 people rescued from distress
The Italian coast guard on Saturday also rescued around 90 migrants from a sailing boat in distress off the southern mainland coast – they were brought to the port of Roccella Ionica in Calabria, ANSA reported on Sunday. Among the migrants were 14 minors, some of them unaccompanied.
Another 29 people who had been rescued by the Ocean Viking, run by the French aid organization SOS Mediteranee, arrived in the port of Bari on Italy's east coast. The migrants had been taken on board late on Thursday evening in international waters off Malta, and they included people from Sudan and Bangladesh. They had been drifting in the Central Mediterranean for five days before being picked up by the Ocean Viking, the charity said on Twitter.
Bodies recovered off Libyan coast
Lampedusa is located between Sicily and North Africa, about 190 kilometers from the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax. Fatal accidents often happen during the crossings to Italy from both the Tunisian and Libyan coasts.
During the weekend, the Libyan Red Crescent reportedly discovered the bodies of 17 people, apparently migrants, off the coast of Sabratha, a main departure point for migrants attempting the Mediterranean journey to Europe.
Tweets on the news site The Libya Update and Italy's state-owned Rai Radio 1 on Monday afternoon (April 24) said as many as 34 bodies had been recovered in the area in recent days.
More arrivals despite Italian crackdown
According to figures from Italy's Ministry of the Interior, more than 35,000 migrants have reached Italy on boats since the beginning of the year -- in the same period last year, there were around 8,600.
The Italian government declared a controversial national state of emergency earlier this month to enable it to set up new reception centers for migrants and to help identify and deport them more quickly.
Most asylum applications are rejected on the basis that the migrants are fleeing poverty, not war or persecution. But few countries have agreements with Italy to take back rejected asylum seekers, meaning that many people remain in Italy for years in legal limbo or try to reach other European countries.
With dpa, AP