11 people died when 2 Ships drowned near the coast of Italy on Monday, while 64 are still missing. German charity organization RESQSHIP said that they rescued 51 people near the island of Lampedusa. During this, they recovered 10 bodies from the lower deck of a wooden boat.
The rescued people were handed over to the Italian Coast Guard. According to BBC, the boat had left from Libya. Refugees from Syria, Egypt, Bangladesh and Pakistan were present in it. After this, on Monday itself, RESQSHIP saw another boat sinking at a distance of 201 km from the coast of Calabria, the southern tip of Italy.
This boat, which left Turkey 8 days ago, caught fire, after which it overturned. According to Al Jazeera, 11 people on the boat were rescued, while 64 people are missing. There are 26 children among them. 1 woman on the boat died. The Italian Coast Guard said that they are trying to find the missing people with the help of EU’s border agency Frontex.
Death of an Afghan family
The UN said that the refugees on the other boat were from Iran, Syria and Iraq. A family from Afghanistan is among those who died. The Coast Guard said that there were no life vests in the boats. Some vessels that passed by did not help them while they were drowning.
According to the UN’s March report, the Mediterranean Sea is the most dangerous migration route. More than one lakh refugees come to Italy every year by boat. In the last 10 years, more than 27 thousand refugees passing through this route have died.
To save them, the Italian government also launched an operation called ‘Mare Nostrum’. Its purpose was to rescue the people trapped in the Mediterranean Sea. Through this, the Italian government has saved the lives of thousands of people so far.