Ten boat migrants, including baby, dead on crossing to Italy

EPA

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 18:20

In the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the coastguard recovered eight bodies of migrants last night from a small fishing boat that had been floating around for days. The victims died of hunger and cold, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. 42 people survived the journey.

Along the way, two people had also died, a baby and a man. According to survivors, the baby fell from its mother’s arms into the water when she died. The man would have sat on the side of the boat and ended up in the water.

The six-meter boat left the Tunisian port of Sfax last weekend. On the way, the engine cut out. The coast guard found the boat about 70 kilometers from Lampedusa. The 42 survivors come from Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Niger, among others. Among them are ten women and a minor.

Last night, a total of about 200 migrants arrived in Lampedusa in several boats.

These are images of the rescue:

Dead migrants found on fishing boat near Italy

“How long must this continue? How many deaths must arrive on the island?”, the mayor of the island writes on Facebook. He has asked Prime Minister Meloni for help. “We can’t take it any longer.”

Some 5,000 boat migrants have already arrived in Italy this year. At the beginning of February last year, that number was around 3000.

---

Source

---