Seven people were rescued and 21 others are missing at sea after a migrant boat capsized on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Italian media and United Nations officials said Wednesday.
The survivors are Syrian nationals. They told the rescue teams that three children are among the missing.
The seven survivors were rescued by the coast guard and said they were traveling on a boat that had left Libya several days earlier with 28 people on board.
Nicola Dell'Arciprete, the UNICEF coordinator for Italy, denounced “another tragic event off the coast of Lampedusa”.
“Most survivors claim to have lost family members,” he wrote on the X network, adding that the teams of the UN Children's Fund are working intensively.
The Central Mediterranean Route is one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.
According to the International Organization for Migration, IOM, in 2023 trying to cross this area, more than 2,500 migrants have died or disappeared. The balance for this year is 1,047 immigrants.
The latest data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior show that 43,000 immigrants were able to arrive in Italy in 2024, much less than in previous years.
