(Rome) The Italian coast guard announced Friday that it had found fourteen more bodies after the sinking of a migrant boat off the southern coast earlier this week, bringing the death toll to 34.
More than 60 people were missing after the sailboat sank off the coast of Calabria overnight from Sunday to Monday, with 11 people having been rescued.
“Today, fourteen bodies were recovered… in total, thirty-four bodies were recovered,” the coast guard said in a statement.
Air and sea searches continue to find the missing.
On Thursday, the coast guard said 12 more bodies had been found, including women and children.
The organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said earlier this week that survivors had reported the disappearance of 66 people, including at least 26 children.
The boat, which left Turkey, sank approximately 120 nautical miles from the Calabrian coast. Afghan families are among the missing, according to MSF.
Ten bodies were found in another migrant boat that sank Monday off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to German humanitarian organization ResQship.
According to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), some 3,155 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean last year and more than 1,000 people have died or gone missing since the start of the year.
The central Mediterranean is the deadliest migratory route in the world and accounts for 80% of deaths and missing people in the Mediterranean.
Many migrants leave Tunisia or Libya by boat for Europe, with Italy often being their first point of arrival.
Arrivals have fallen significantly since the start of the year, with 24,100 people landing in Italy so far, compared to more than 57,500 in the same period in 2023, according to the Interior Ministry.