One migrant drowned on Monday, August 12, before the boat which she was traveling on was rescued by NGOs and coast guard officials. The surviving 145 passengers were taken to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, which on Monday recorded a total of 364 arrivals.
Coast guard officials on Monday rescued 145 passengers on board a 10-meter boat. However, just before the rescue operation, one passenger fell into the water and drowned.
Her body was taken alongside the surviving migrants to the Favarolo pier on Lampedusa. Among those rescued were four women and three minors.
Many of the migrants were found in a dehydrated state, rescuers said.
The boat had reportedly departed from Sabratha in Libya before running into problems at sea.
Crew members of the NGO Astral rushed to the scene and distributed life vests to all the migrants on board while awaiting the intervention of Italian coast guard.
Many arrivals in Lampedusa
In total 364 people, reached Lampedusa on Monday, including the 145 people on the rescued boat.
The island's migrant hotspot in the Imbriacola district now hosts a total of 527 migrants. The local prefecture of Agrigento has ordered the transfer on Tuesday night of 193 migrants, who will be taken by ferry to Porto Empedocle in Sicily.