On Wednesday, the Italian coast guard found a boat with the dead bodies of 19 migrants during a rescue operation off the coast of the island of Lampedusa. Seven others, including two children, are alive, but hypothermic and poisoned by fuel fumes. This was reported by AFP with reference to the mayor of the Italian island, Filippo Mannino, TASR writes.
- The Italian Coast Guard found a boat with nineteen dead migrants off Lampedusa.
- The ship was intercepted early in the morning near Libya, 135 kilometers from Lampedusa.
- The victims probably died of hypothermia in the strong wind, rain and cold.
- Since the beginning of the year, 624 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea.
- Seven migrants, including two children, survived, suffering from hypothermia and vapor poisoning.
The rescue operation took place early Wednesday morning in the area near Libya, approximately 135 kilometers from the island of Lampedusa, which lies between the east coast of Tunisia and Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Italian Coast Guard said in a statement that all the migrants whose bodies she discovered on the vessel apparently died of hypothermia. According to her, they ran amok in the area of intervention strong winds and rain, while the temperature reached about ten degrees Celsius.
Migrants use Southern Italy’s Lampedusa as a gateway to the EU. Zmost try to get there from North Africa, but many of them do not survive the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, since the beginning of the year, according to official UN data, 624 migrants have lost their lives or are missing.
The last tragedy involving migrants who tried to reach Lampedusa occurred in August last year, when 27 people died when two ships sank off the coast of the island. So far this year, 6,117 migrants have landed on Italian shores, according to the Italian Interior Ministry, AFP reported.
