World

Seven rescued, 21 missing after migrant shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa

2024.09.04 13:40

By Alberto Chiumento and Angelo Amante

ROME (Reuters) -Seven people were rescued and 21 people were missing at sea after a migrant shipwreck off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard said on Wednesday.

The survivors, all male Syrian nationals, were picked up from a semi-sunken boat about 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometres) southwest of Lampedusa, a statement said.

They told rescuers they had set off on Sunday from Libya, and that 21 of the 28 people they had aboard, including three children, had fallen into the sea during rough weather.

The coast guard said it had taken the survivors to Lampedusa and had deployed naval and air units to look for the missing people.

The Italian office of UN refugee agency UNHCR told Reuters that Sudanese people were also on the boat, which is believed to have departed from the port of Sabratha, west of Tripoli.

The head of UNHCR Italy, Chiara Cardoletti, wrote on X that the survivors were in “critical” condition and had lost relatives at sea.

The boat “capsized repeatedly, leaving people clinging to the side of the boat as their family members drowned around them,” Nicola Dell (NYSE:)’Arciprete, UNICEF country coordinator for Italy, said in a statement.

© Reuters. Coast guard members rescue the seven survivors of a boat that had set off from Libya a few days ago, with 28 people on board and shipwrecked near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, September 4, 2024, in this screengrab from video. Guardia Costiera/Handout via REUTERS

The central Mediterranean is among the world’s deadliest migration routes. According to the U.N. migration agency (IOM), more than 2,500 migrants died or went missing attempting the crossing last year, and 1,047 this year, as of Tuesday.

The latest figures from the Italian interior ministry recorded that just over 43,000 migrants had reached Italy so far in 2024, well down from previous years.



Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 96,848.95 2.03%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,299.51 4.88%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.11%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 245.64 5.94%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 645.37 4.26%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 1.35 13.87%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.409168 12.10%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999454 0.17%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.980725 11.59%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,301.87 4.69%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.20328 8.50%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 39.66 7.38%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.50839 10.41%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 5.95 2.13%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000025 10.34%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,930.31 3.99%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 96,565.87 1.53%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 8.59 5.00%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 16.52 5.70%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 487.71 10.00%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,297.03 4.89%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 3.25 10.44%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000019 11.66%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 8.71 0.92%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 6.25 2.13%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 94.04 8.79%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 11.82 8.76%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 10.34 4.06%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,491.15 3.88%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.140704 6.79%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.08%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 10.68 7.92%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.184032 9.63%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.537201 6.85%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 27.72 9.67%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.20%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 7.38 7.48%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.147474 8.41%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.43 0.47%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 495.29 8.56%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 24.40 1.22%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999886 0.19%
celestia
Celestia (TIA) $ 7.90 22.86%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.813741 6.79%
bonk
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000044 14.34%
mantra-dao
MANTRA (OM) $ 3.66 3.82%
cosmos
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 8.36 2.04%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.040189 8.61%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 5.35 0.88%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 52.51 2.30%