Following their ship’s disaster off the southern coast of Italy on Monday, sixty-four individuals were reported missing in the Mediterranean Sea, and some of them were rescued, according to a statement from UN agencies.
The German assistance agency Resqship posted on the social networking site X on Monday, stating that while rescue crews in another shipwreck managed to save scores of suspected migrants, they discovered ten remains submerged beneath the deck of a wooden boat near the small Italian island of Lampedusa.
According to witnesses cited by U.N. agencies, the boat that capsized some 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast of Calabria had started out from Turkey eight days prior, but it caught fire and capsized.
The Italian coast guard released a statement stating that the search and rescue effort commenced in response to a mayday call made by a French boat. The vessel was traveling across a border region where search and rescue missions are conducted by Greece and Italy. According to U.N. authorities, survivors and those who are still missing at sea are from Iran, Syria, and Iraq.
Two neighboring commercial boats were quickly redirected to the rescue area by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center. Resources from Frontex, a European border and coast guard organization, were also beneficial.
The survivors were transported to the port of Roccella Jonica in Calabria, where they disembarked and were given up to medical staff. As to the Coast Guard, one of the eleven rescued migrants passed away shortly after.
The crew of Resqship’s vessel, the Nadir, discovered 61 people on the wooden vessel, which was submerged in water, in the second shipwreck.
It went on, “Our crew successfully evacuated 51 individuals, two of whom were unconscious.” “The boat’s flooded lower deck contained the ten dead.”