On Wednesday, at least 20 migrants died after a boat overthrown in the Mediterranean, with many others still missing, said the UN (UNHCR) refugee agency.
“Deep anxiety for the umpteenth shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where the UNHCR now helps the survivors. It seems that it is 20 bodies and as many missing,” wrote the agency spokesperson, Filippo Ungaro, on social networks.
The Italian Radio Radicalde Italian news agency said the boat was carrying 97 people when it was 14 miles in the southwest of Lampedusa.
The details remained summary, but Save the Children Italy said that a little girl, aged one and a half, seemed to be lost in the sinking.
Learn more: The aid helps become fatal like 73 killed in Gaza in one day
Rairadio1 reported between 12 and 17 missing migrants and said 60 survivors had been transported on the island.
The boat, which had already knocked down, was spotted air by an Italian financial police plane, he said.
Migrants heading to Italy from North Africa often meet in boats fleeing or overcrowded by the central road to the Mediterranean, one of the deadliest in the world, and arrive in Lampedusa.
The UNHCR said on Wednesday that there had been 675 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean road so far this year.
Wednesday, 38,263 migrants arrived on the Italian coast this year, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
