At least four people have died, including a mother and her baby, and 51 are feared missing after two ships carrying migrants sank off the Italian Island of Lampedusa, as reported by the news agency Reuters. The ships carrying 48 and 42 people, respectively, left from the Tunisian port city of Sfax, as reported by the BBC. Italian coastguards said that they had recovered the bodies of an Ivory Coast woman and her one-year-old baby.
The officials in Sfax said that they were trying to identify the nationalities of the migrants, the BBC reported. They further stated that the migrants mostly came from sub-Saharan African countries.
Italy’s coastguard said that the incidents are being investigated, adding that it had rescued 57 migrants when the vessel sank on Saturday. Italian authorities are investigating the incidents, as per the BBC. Earlier, the UN’s migration agency said that more than 30 people were reported missing.
Out of the 48 people on board, the first boat, 43 were rescued, and the second boat was carrying 42 passengers, of whom 14 were rescued, The Guardian reported, citing Italian media. Firefighters and mountain rescue teams were preparing to rescue 20 migrants who were trapped on a rocky part of Lampedusa's coastline on Sunday, the BBC reported. The migrants have been there since Friday, after their boats were pushed against the rocks by strong winds.
Speaking to the local media, Police Chief Emanuele Ricifari said that the traffickers would have known that rough seas were forecast. "Whoever allowed them, or forced them, to leave with this sea is an unscrupulous criminal lunatic," Ricifari said, as quoted by the BBC. Ricifari urged the traffickers to stop saying, "Rough seas are forecast for the next few days. Let's hope they stop. It's sending them to slaughter with this sea," as quoted by the BBC.
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