At least 30 migrants are missing following two shipwrecks off the Italian island of Lampedusa, while rescuers on Sunday winched 34 others stranded on the rocks by choppy seas to safety.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) claimed that after both boats capsized on Saturday during inclement weather, about 28 migrants from one boat’s survivors reported being lost at sea while three people from the second boat were reported missing.
Both were flimsy iron boats that are thought to have left Sfax, Tunisia, on Thursday. The bodies of a lady and a child as well as 57 survivors from the two shipwrecks were found, according to the Italian coast guard.
It published a stunning video of the rescues on Sunday, showing individuals being lifted high on the crests of enormous waves as a coast guard craft soared and dove alongside.
While others, wearing black rubber rings, urgently clung to one another in a human chain, some people attempted to get on board the rocking vessel.
Cultural mediators with the IOM believed there were “at least 30 people missing” after speaking to those pulled from the waves, press officer Flavio Di Giacomo told newsmen.
An investigation into the shipwrecks has been opened in Agrigento, on the nearby Italian island of Sicily.
Agrigento’s chief of police Emanuele Ricifari said the traffickers would have known bad weather was forecast.
“Whoever allowed them, or forced them, to leave with this sea is an unscrupulous criminal lunatic,” he told Italian media.
The Central Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe is the world’s deadliest.
Over 1,800 people have died attempting it so far this year, Di Giacomo said — almost 900 more than last year.
“The truth is that figure is likely to be much higher. Lots of bodies are being found at sea, suggesting there are many shipwrecks we never hear about,” he said.
The number of bodies found has increased in particular on the so-called Tunisian route, which has become increasingly dangerous, Di Flavio said, because of the type of boats used.
Sub-Saharan migrants are being put out to sea by traffickers “in iron boats which cost less than the usual wooden ones, but are utterly unseaworthy, they easily break up and sink”, he said.
Migrants also often have the engines stolen from their boats at sea, so that traffickers can re-use them.
