At least 11 people have died and dozens are missing and feared dead after two separate shipwrecks close to the Italian coast, rescuers said.
Ten bodies were found on Monday in the lower deck of a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean by rescuers from Nadir, a ship operated by the German charity ResQship. The charity said it saved 51 people who were onboard the sinking vessel, which is believed to have departed from Tunisia.
Alarm Phone, a hotline service for people in distress while crossing the Mediterranean, said on X: “We were alerted to a boat in distress, carrying about 60 people. Not EU authorities but the small Nadir offered assistance. Unfortunately, they came too late for the 10 people who died in the lower deck. EU borders continue to kill!”
The shipwreck happened about 40 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, Italy’s Rai News reported.
Separately, 66 people including at least 26 children were reported missing on Monday afternoon in a shipwreck in the Ionian Sea about 100 miles off the coast of Calabria in southern Italy. Twelve people were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Roccella Ionica port, one of whom, a woman, later died. They had been travelling on a sailing boat that had left Turkey in recent days, according to reports in the Italian press. There were people of Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian nationality onboard.
“I spoke to a boy who lost his girlfriend. The survivors spoke of 66 people missing, including at least 26 children, even [those of] a few months old,” Shakila Mohammadi, a cultural mediator for Doctors Without Borders in Roccella Ionica, told Rai News.
“Entire families from Afghanistan would have died. They left Turkey eight days ago and were taking in water for three or four days. They said they were travelling without lifejackets and that some boats didn’t stop to help them.”
Roberto Occhiuto, the president of the Calabria region, said news of the shipwreck felt like “a punch in the stomach”. He recalled a shipwreck off Cutro, a beach in Calabria, in February 2023, in which 94 people died.
“What we are experiencing are hours of great anguish, hours that bring to mind the enormous drama we experienced in Cutro just over a year ago,” he said. “I thank the rescuers who promptly supported the survivors who arrived in Roccella Ionica, and I pray for the woman who tragically died in an attempt to save herself. The Turkish route, from where these migrants appear to have arrived, has too often been underestimated in recent years, instead greater attention is needed from Europe and national governments.”
Overnight on Sunday, 173 people arrived on three boats to Lampedusa, including three minors. The vessels had left Zawia in Libya and were carrying people from Bangladesh, Sudan, Syria and Egypt.
Earlier this month 11 bodies were recovered from the sea off the coast of Libya.
Italy is one of the main landing points for people trying to reach Europe, with the central Mediterranean route considered one of the world’s most dangerous. The UN has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances along the route since 2014.
