June 18 (UPI) — At least 11 migrants are dead and dozens more are missing following two boats capsizing in separate incidents off the southern coast of Italy.
One ship, which was described as a wooden boat, had 61 people on board.
a sailboat has capsized about 120 miles off the Italian coast of Calabrian. The Italian Coast Guard said it is searching for missing passengers. Image courtesy Italian Coast Guard/X
It was unclear exactly when or where it suffered distress, but RESQSHIP said in a statement that it responded to the ship and was able to rescue 51 of its passengers, but came to late to rescue 10 others from the vessel’s flooded lower deck.
Of those rescued, two were unconscious and required to be cut free from the boat, it said, adding that the pair were receiving medical attention and were to be evacuated.
RESQSHIP said its responding Nadir ship was towing the disabled boat, along with the deceased, to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea.
The other ship was described by the Italian Coast Guard as a sailboat that had capsized 120 miles off the Italian coast of Calabrian. The Alarm Phone hotline stated around 70 passengers were on board when it sank.
The Coast Guard said it had responded to a may-day call from the French pleasure craft Sunday night and recovered 12 migrants from the partially submerged boat.
Video of the rescue posted to its X account shows Italian Coast Guard boats racing to the mostly submerged vessel.
Of the 12 migrants rescued, one died following landing operations, it said.
The Italian Coast Guard said it has been searching for an unidentified number of missing people, while adding that it believes the ship had department from Turkey.
The migrant hotline that responds to incidents in the Mediterranean accused the Italian Coast Guard of being aware of the distress ship since at least Sunday afternoon and delayed the rescue operation.
“We need a thorough investigation into the events to understand why the people were left to die,” it said in a statement.
The 11 deaths are the latest to occur in the Mediterranean Sea, with more than 920 migrants recorded missing in the body of water so far this year, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
According to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, thousands of migrants seeking asylum in Europe yearly attempt to cross the Mediterranean by boat from Africa and Turkey. Since it began recording data in 2014, nearly 30,000 migrants have been recorded missing in the Mediterranean.