(Rome) Twelve new bodies, including women and children, have been recovered after a migrant boat sank this week off Calabria, where more than 60 people are missing, the coast guard said Thursday Italians.
Eleven people survived the sinking of a sailboat around 220 km from the Calabrian coast during the night from Sunday to Monday.
At least 26 children, some as young as a few months old, are believed to have died, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which came to the aid of survivors.
The coast guard said Thursday it had recovered “twelve more bodies, including women and children” from the Ionian Sea.
Ten bodies were also found in another migrant boat wrecked Monday off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to the German humanitarian organization ResQship.
Since the beginning of 2024, more than a thousand people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean area, the world’s deadliest migration route.
Many migrants embark in Tunisia or Libya in the hope of reaching Europe, with Italy often being their first port of call.
Arrivals have fallen significantly since the start of the year, with 24,290 people landing in Italy, compared to more than 58,000 in the same period of 2023, according to the Italian Interior Ministry.