Lampedusa: Dozens rescued by Italy from migrant shipwrecks, survivors say 31 missing, others stranded on rocks in treacherous seas.

Lampedusa: Dozens rescued by Italy from migrant

ROME: Italy’s Coast Guard rescued 57 migrants from two boats that capsized throughout the evening in tough seas south of a tiny Italian island and recovered two our bodies, authorities mentioned.

In an announcement, the coast guard quotes survivors as saying some 30 migrants have been lacking and it recovered the physique of a boy and a lady from one of many capsized vessels.
Some 20 others have been stranded Sunday on rocks after a 3rd shipwreck.

In response to those that have been rescued from the shipwrecked vessels late Saturday, some 23 nautical miles (42.5 kilometers) southwest of Lampedusa, 28 folks have been lacking from one and three from the opposite.
In the meantime, 20 migrants have been clinging desperately to jagged rocks of a tall reef off Lampedusa since early Saturday after a 3rd boat crashed into the craggy outcropping west of the island’s lighthouse. Sturdy winds and highly effective waves made any Coast Guard rescue too harmful.

The coast guard workplace in Palermo requested the assistance of a Sicily-based Alpine and Cave Rescue group, which flew two consultants aboard an Italian air power helicopter. The consultants have been planning to rescue the stranded migrants utilizing the helicopter, the mountaineering group mentioned.
Earlier, Italian helicopters dropped meals and water all the way down to the migrants, Italian state TV reported.

So many have made the crossing in smugglers’ unseaworthy boats launched from Libya and Tunisia in current days that 2,450 migrants have been at the moment housed at Lampedusa’s non permanent residence, which has a capability of about 400, mentioned Ignazio Schintu, an official of the Italian Purple Cross which runs the middle. As soon as the winds slacken and the seas flip calm, Italy will resume ferrying tons of of them to Sicily to ease the overcrowding, he advised state TV.

The 2 boats that capsized in open seas have been believed to have set out from Sfax — a Tunisian port — on Thursday, when sea situations have been good, in line with authorities.
However since sea situations have been forecast to show unhealthy on Saturday, “it’s even more criminal for smugglers to let them leave,” said Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson from the U.N. migration agency IOM.

Before Saturday, a total of 1,814 migrants were known to have perished while attempting the Mediterranean crossing to Italy in boats launched from Tunisia or Libya, he said.
Libyan departures used to be riskier, he said, but because lately Tunisia-based smugglers have been using particularly flimsy vessels, that route is becoming increasingly deadlier.
Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are setting out from Tunisia in “fragile iron vessels that after 24 hours typically break in two, and the migrants fall into the ocean,” Di Giacomo mentioned, in an audio message from Sicily.