The International Organization for Migration (IOM) fears that more than 30 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tunisia. So far, only six bodies have been recovered.
At least seven migrants are reported to have died of hypothermia in a boat off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The overcrowded vessel was reportedly carrying about 280 people, mostly from Bangladesh and Egypt.
The rescue ship Geo Barents, with 439 migrants on board, has requested a port of safety in Italy. Meanwhile, hundreds disembarked on the island of Lampedusa, following several other rescues by the coast guards and civil fleets.
The numbers of migrants who were intercepted by Libya's coast guard while attempting to cross the Mediterranean almost tripled in 2021 compared to the year before, according to the UN.
Hizia, a 39-year-old Algerian woman, set sail for Spain on the evening of December 31. She was traveling with her two children, 9-year-old Mohammed and 14-year-old Omar. They left Oran on the Algerian coast with 13 other people, but the boat capsized off the coast of Andalusia. Omar was rescued by a merchant ship, but Hizia and her youngest son are still missing.
The body of a small child has been recovered from the sea off the Greek island of Naxos. The child is believed to have been involved in one of two major accidents involving migrant boats which took place just before Christmas in the Aegean.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that ensuring Tunisia's stability was "fundamental also to fighting irregular migration flows" in the Mediterranean.
At least 15 people have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Europe on the weekend. Their bodies washed up on the Libyan coastline, with more casualties expected.
The Greek and Tunisian coast guards have also reported successful rescue missions. Nonetheless, dozens of people have died in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean over the past several days.
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More than 160 migrants died off Libya over the past week, according to the UN. The total number of migrants who perished on the Central Mediterranean route this year is now over 1,500.
While most migrant journeys across the Mediterranean tend to focus on using the shortest route to the EU, there is a new route opening up to Italy's Calabria region, which only a select few can afford. Criminal gangs meanwhile are making huge profits from exploiting people fleeing persecution.