A Sea-Watch rescue ship arrived in Lampedusa Saturday carrying 44 migrants rescued from an abandoned oil rig in the Mediterranean.
Sea-Watch, a non-profit sea rescue group, said the migrants were on the oil rig ‘Didon’ after taking refuge to escape a storm.
The presence of the migrants on the oil rig, in the waters between Tunisia and Libya, was reported on Wednesday by Alarm Phone, a group of volunteers who handle emergency calls from migrants.
Initially it was thought there were 47 people aboard the rig.
Earlier, in Italy, authorities found 19 people dead and rescued 58 others after intercepting a dinghy filled with migrants that was in distress about 80 nautical miles from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday night.
The coast guard said the migrants had probably departed from Libya and the victims likely died of hypothermia, but the cause of the deaths still needed to be verified.
The tiny island of Lampedusa is the main entry point to Europe for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, with thousands dying during the perilous journey.
Most of the deaths have been attributed to small boats setting off from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.
