An operation by the Italian Coast Guard rescued 91 people after two boats with migrants sank from Friday (4) to Saturday (5) near the island of Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean Sea. Among the victims are two dead, a woman and a 1-year-old child. There are still about 30 missing. Of the 91 rescued, 34 were pulled from a cliff in the region, according to the rescue service.
The suspicion of the local authorities is that one of the boats left Tunisia, one of the important places in the migration process. Italy is experiencing an increase in immigration by sea: in 2022, an average of 43,000 people with this profile arrived in the country, compared to 92,000 this year. The data are from the Ministry of the Interior.
Rescue work involved firefighters and Air Force agents and lasted more than 30 hours, facing major obstacles due to the agitation of the sea in the area. According to local media, the passengers on the boats were from African countries such as Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon. The first vessel carried 48 people and the second, 42.
The departure of refugees with this profile to territories such as Italy is part of the context of an intense migratory crisis in Europe. The problem generates a humanitarian crisis that affects thousands of people and that has drawn even more attention in recent times. It is common for migrants to depart from places like Asia, the Middle East and Africa to Western Europe. In April of this year, the Italian government even declared a state of national emergency due to the volume of migrants arriving in the country today.
Editing: Daniel Lamir
