ROME – One woman has passed away, two have gone missing and 87 people have been rescued following a wreck of migrants off the coast of Lampedusa on Italy's island, UN Immigration Agency officials said Monday.
Lampedusa is located between the large islands of Tunisia, Malta and Italy's Sicily, and is the first port to have many migrants trying to reach the EU from North Africa become one of the deadliest sea crossings in the world.
The migrants, initially rescued by a Tunisian fishing boat and then greeted by the Italian coast guard, arrived in Lampedusa around 4am (0200 GMT).
They departed from Tunisia in thin metal boats that collapsed during the sailing, he said.
“We're trying to see if one or two people are missing, except for the bodies that have been recovered. There are probably two,” he added.
Another group of about 80 sea immigrants, including children and two or three pregnant women, also landed in Lampedusa overnight after a “dramatic” intersection in extremely rough weather, Di Giacomo said.
“Given the ocean conditions they faced, they were lucky to be able to make it,” he said.
More than 25,000 migrants have been killed or missing on the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy since 2014, according to the IOM. Reuters
