ROME: Eleven migrants died and 64 were missing on Monday after two shipwrecks off southern Italy, according to a German charity, the Italian coast guard and UN agencies.
The German aid group RESQSHIP, which operates the Nadir rescue ship, said it picked up 51 people from a sinking wooden boat, including two who were unconscious, and found 10 bodies trapped in the lower deck of the vessel.“Our thoughts are with their families. We are angry and sad,” it wrote on X. RESQSHIP said the survivors were handed over to the Italian coast guard and taken ashore on Monday morning, while the Nadir was making its way to the island of Lampedusa, towing the wooden boat with the bodies of the deceased.
The UN Refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration and UN children’s agency Unicef said in a joint statement that the migrants intercepted by the German charity came from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The second shipwreck took place about 200 km east of the Italian region of Calabria, as a boat that had set off from Turkiye eight days earlier caught fire and overturned, the UN agencies said.
They said 64 people were missing at sea, while 11 were rescued and taken ashore to the Calabrian town of Roccella Ionica , along with the body of a woman. The UN agencies said the migrants in the second shipwreck came from Iran, Syria and Iraq.