(Rome) Eleven people died and dozens were missing in the sinking of two migrant boats in the Mediterranean off the Italian coast, one coming from Turkey, the other from North Africa, an NGO said on Monday. the coast guard and the media.

The German NGO ResQship reported on bodies of ten other migrants.

“Our team was able to evacuate 51 people, two of whom were unconscious – we had to free them with an axe,” the NGO said. “The unconscious people are currently receiving medical treatment and awaiting urgent evacuation.”

Furthermore, the Italian coast guard announced that it had recovered 12 people from a sailboat adrift off the coast of Calabria (south), near the dividing line between Italian and Greek waters.

A passenger died during rescue operations.

According to the Ansa agency, around fifty passengers are missing.

The coast guard specifies that the sailboat had probably left Turkey. The alarm was raised by French boaters who recovered the castaways aboard their boat about 120 nautical miles from the coast.

The migrants were then collected aboard a diverted commercial ship, then on a coast guard boat which took them to the port of Roccella Jonica.

The search continues on Monday with maritime and air resources from the coast guard and Frontex, adds a press release from the coast guard, without specifying the number of people presumed missing.

The central Mediterranean, one of the deadliest migration routes in the world, alone accounted for 80% of deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean last year. It is widely used by migrants seeking to enter the European Union to escape conflicts or poverty from Tunisia to Libya.

Since coming to power in late 2022, Giorgia Meloni’s ultraconservative government in Italy has pledged to reduce migrant arrivals from North Africa to the peninsula’s coasts.

Rome believes that the presence of sea rescue NGOs encourages migrants to attempt the crossing. NGOs reject this argument and point out that they represent less than 10% of migrants recovered in the Mediterranean.

However, a decree requires them to sail “without delay” to a port as soon as a rescue is completed, preventing them from carrying out several in a row. However, NGOs believe that this decree violates maritime law, which requires any vessel to come to the aid of a boat in distress.

This contradiction places them in a dilemma. Because by disobeying, they risk a fine of 2,000 to 10,000 euros (approximately 3,000 to 15,000 Canadian dollars) – to date, 21 fines have been imposed on ten NGO vessels – administrative detention of 20 days and, ultimately , the definitive seizure of the vessel.

According to figures from the Italian Interior Ministry, arrivals by sea have fallen significantly since the start of the year: 23,725 people arrived in Italy between January 1 and June 17, compared to 53,902 during the same period. period of 2023.

But the flow of arrivals has largely moved towards Spain and Greece. Tunisia and Libya have tightened their controls and weather conditions also play a crucial role.

“People continue to pass” because they “change route and adapt to obstacles,” Daniel Auerbacher, head of operations for the NGO SOS Méditerranée, explained to AFP in May.

And for NGOs, the journey is all the more perilous as humanitarian ships are prevented from quickly returning to sea.

“Fortress Europe kills,” ResQship denounced Monday.