ROME, June 24 (Prensa Latina) Italian rescue workers today continue the search for the more than 40 migrants who disappeared after the shipwreck a few hours ago off the coast of the southern island of Lampedusa, a spokesman said.
Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said in statements published on La Repubblica newspaper’s website that of the 46 people on board, only four were rescued alive and seven were among those missing. Women, one of them was traveling with a newborn.
The tragedy happened on the night of last Friday, caused by bad weather conditions in the central Mediterranean area that caused the shipwreck just six hours after its departure from the Tunisian coast of Sfax.
According to the latest report from Italy’s Interior Ministry, from January 1 to June 23, 2023, 59,767 immigrants arrived on this country’s coast, 131.0 percent more than the 254,795 registered in the same period last year.
Of these, 7,574 are from Ivory Coast, 7,038 from Egypt, 6,374 from Guinea, 5,915 from Pakistan, 5,754 from Bangladesh, 4.61 from Tunisia and 3,527 from Syria.
In addition, 2,393 nationals were from Burkina Faso, 2,077 from Cameroon, 1,612 from Mali while the remaining 12,527 were from other nations, and out of the total, 6,481 were unaccompanied minors, the report said.
While in 2021 the number of irregular migrant disembarkations was 67,477, the following year it reached 105,127 and by 2023 this latest figure is expected to double as the largest number mainly occurs in the summer months, the analysts at this organization estimate.
ro/ort