Another tragic shipwrecks off Italy’s southern coast has resulted in the deaths of several Pakistanis, with others still missing.
According to international media reports, over two dozen children were among those who perished in the migrant shipwrecks. Aid groups, coastguard officials, and U.N. agencies reported the incidents on Monday.
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The German aid organization RESQSHIP rescued more than 50 people from a sinking wooden boat and discovered 10 bodies trapped in the vessel’s lower deck. The survivors were handed over to the Italian coastguard and brought ashore on Monday morning.
A statement from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, indicated that the vessel had departed from Libya and was carrying migrants from Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and Bangladesh.
The ill-fated shipwreck occurred east of Italy’s Calabria region. Survivors reported that 66 people were unaccounted for, including at least 26 children, some only a few months old.
These tragic incidents highlight the central Mediterranean as one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes. Thousands of illegal migrants have died or gone missing in its waters over the past decade.
Recently, 11 bodies were recovered off the coast of Libya. Last year, a migrant boat departing from Turkey crashed into rocks near the town of Cutro in Calabria, resulting in at least 94 deaths.
