The Italian Coast Guard announced the recovery of 12 new bodies, including women and children following the sinking of a boat carrying migrants this week in the south of the country, while one of the survivors died while being treated.
The accident occurred about 220 kilometers off the coast of Calabria, and also resulted in the loss of more than 60 people, including a large number of children, according to the Coast Guard.
Doctors Without Borders reported that at least 26 children died in this disaster, including infants as young as a few months old.
In a related context, the German “Rescueship” group reported that 10 more bodies were found in a migrant boat that crashed on Monday off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The head of the Association of Migrants Returning from Europe in the Kurdistan Region, Bakr Ali, told Agence France-Presse that the boat that sank near the Italian coast was carrying “75 people, including women, children and men, the majority of whom were Iraqi and Iranian Kurds and a number of Afghans.” He explained that the boat sailed from the area. Bodrum in Turkey.
These incidents confirm that the central Mediterranean region, which extends between North Africa, Italy and Malta, is the deadliest migration route in the world, with 80% of deaths and disappearances recorded.
Data issued by the International Organization for Migration indicate that about 3,155 migrants died or went missing last year in this region, while the number of deaths and missing people exceeded a thousand people this year.
The Italian Ministry of the Interior indicated that the number of arrivals so far this year amounts to 24,100 people, compared to more than 57,500 in the same period last year.
A Meeting in Paris to form a joint military force in Libya