Photo credit: Al Jazeera
A boat carrying almost 100 migrants capsized Wednesday in international waters near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
India Today reports that at least 26 people died and around a dozen are missing, according to Italian authorities and UN agencies.
Sixty survivors were taken to a reception centre on Lampedusa, according to Filippo Ungaro, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Italy.
Survivor accounts indicated that between 92 and 97 migrants had set off from Libya before the vessel sank. Rescue operations continue for the remaining persons.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said about 95 migrants initially departed Libya on two boats. When one vessel began taking on water, all passengers were transferred to a fibreglass boat. But it later capsized.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said, “That today’s tragedy occurred despite a ready and operational international response warns us that the necessary rescue effort is not sufficient and, above all, does not address the root causes of this tragic problem.”
