(Rome) Twenty migrants are missing after a boat capsized in the Mediterranean near the Italian island of Lampedusa, the Italian section of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
“Twenty people are missing in the Mediterranean after a shipwreck on 1er “September, according to survivors,” wrote Chiara Cardoletti of UNHCR on X. “The seven survivors, welcomed by our team in Lampedusa, are in critical condition. Many of them are believed to have lost relatives” in the disaster, she said.
The Italian media, for their part, report 21 people missing, including three children.
The survivors, Syrians, were rescued by the Italian coastguard. The latter, questioned by AFP, did not respond immediately.
In 2023, more than three thousand migrants were reported missing after attempting to cross the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
According to figures from the Italian Interior Ministry, arrivals by sea have dropped significantly since the beginning of the year: 43,061 people arrived in Italy between 1er January and September 4, compared to 115,177 during the same period in 2023.