Around 30 people were reported missing after two shipwrecks occurred off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in the night from Saturday to Sunday.
The Italian coast guard on Sunday said it recovered two bodies and rescued 57 migrants, Italian news agency Ansa reported. The two boats had set off from the Tunisian port of Sfax and sank on their way to Europe, the agency said, citing survivors’ accounts.
The first boat is said to have carried 48 people, the second 42; the coast guard found the survivors — as well as the two victims — about 46 kilometers southwest of the island. The coast guard could only confirm the number of survivors and the recovery of two bodies, but not the number of people missing, according to Reuters.
Over 2,000 people have arrived in Lampedusa over the past few days after being rescued by Italian patrol boats and NGO groups, as strong winds make sea conditions around the island more dangerous. Operations began on Sunday to rescue a group of migrants who had been stuck on a cliff since Friday evening after their boat crashed against a rock upon their arrival at the island, according to local media reports.
Italy’s right-wing government under Giorgia Meloni has adopted a policy that forces charity migrant rescue ships to dock at ports further away, rather than letting them disembark rescued migrants in Lampedusa or Sicily. The aim is to spread arrivals across the country.
NGOs say that policy drives up their navigation costs and reduces the amount of time they can patrol areas where shipwrecks are more common.