migration
Ship accident off Lampedusa: 15 people still missing
There have been repeated fatal disasters involving refugee boats on the Mediterranean for several years (archive image). photo
© Francisco Seco/AP/dpa
A boat carrying more than 40 refugees capsizes off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Patrol boats are able to save some shipwrecked people – but help comes too late for at least nine people.
After a new ship accident in the Mediterranean that left at least nine dead, around 15 people are still missing. According to the Italian Coast Guard, a boat with more than 40 refugees on board was about 30 nautical miles southeast of the island Lampedusa capsized in international waters. The search for survivors was made more difficult by waves of up to 2.50 meters, it was said. According to their information, the boat set out from Sfax in Tunisia on its way to Europe. Such deadly disasters occur again and again in the Mediterranean.
Despite rough seas, a patrol boat was able to take most of the shipwrecked people on board on Wednesday, according to the coast guard. On the way to Lampedusa, however, some migrants died as a result of hypothermia. Accordingly, 23 survivors were counted upon arrival on the small Italian island. Several of them required emergency medical care. The exact circumstances of the accident are still unclear. The reports from survivors were sometimes contradictory.
According to authorities, the refugees are migrants from countries such as Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast. According to the European border protection agency Frontex, last year alone more than 150,000 people from Africa made the dangerous journey to Europe via the so-called central route of the Mediterranean. Smugglers usually charge several thousand euros for the crossing in boats that are often barely seaworthy.