The boats had departed from Sfax and Zarzis in Tunisia and from Sabratha and Tajoura in Libya, Italian authorities reported. On board were people from Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, Syria, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal.
The migrants who arrived were accommodated in the island’s hotspot, where 1,335 people were staying on Sunday. Some of them are to be brought to Sicily on Sunday.
44 migrants rescued
44 migrants, including eleven women and three minors, were rescued off the coast of Lampedusa on Saturday night following their boat sank. A 15-month-old girl who was traveling with her mother is missing, Italian authorities said. The baby’s mother fell into the water and was unable to save her child.
The seven-meter-long iron boat that left Sfax in Tunisia on Thursday suddenly sank. The NGO ship “Mare Go” intervened and hoisted the migrants on board. Those rescued later boarded an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat. The castaways come from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Senegal.
Another 59 people rescued
A joint operation by the “Mare Ionio”, a ship owned by the Italian NGO Mediterranea, and an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat rescued 59 people on Saturday, including two pregnant women who were in difficulty on an overcrowded boat. According to the NGO, the rescue took place 43 miles south of Lampedusa. The crew of the NGO ship stabilized the boat in distress, distributed life jackets and handed over the first shipwrecked people to the coast guard patrol boat.
Meanwhile, the Tunisian coast guard has thwarted 28 attempts at irregular migration by intercepting 1,178 people who were on board several boats off the coast of the Sfax region. Most of the people came from sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of 18 Tunisians, the Tunis National Guard Directorate said, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Two bodies were also recovered as part of the rescue operations.
The National Guard in Sfax also arrested nine people accused of being involved in human trafficking. 15 metal boats, 25 boat engines and a large amount of fuel were confiscated.
Since the beginning of 2024, 9,479 people have arrived in southern Italy following sea voyages across the Mediterranean. In the comparable period of 2023 there were 20,364, said the Italian Ministry of the Interior.
