At least 20 migrants are missing or presumed dead after their boat sank on their way to Italy from Libya. Only seven people could be rescued from the shipwreck, Italian authorities have said.
Among the seven people saved from the sinking boat was an eight-year-old boy from Syria, who according to Reuters was hoping to join his father in Germany. He had reportedly been accompanied by his mother on the journey; however, she is among those who have been missing since the boat suffered shipwreck on Tuesday (December 31).
Other survivors, who were taken to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, said there were at least five women and three children among those who were unaccounted for.
Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino assumes that they all drowned, saying in a statement: "They didn't make it to shore. Knowing that these poor souls were so close but couldn’t make it is even more heartbreaking."
None of the bodies have yet been retrieved. Despite slim hope of finding survivors, searches continue.
The seven survivors have meanwhile been identified as migrants from Egypt, Syria and Sudan.
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300 kilometers between life and death
The small boat had reportedly set sail from the Libyan town of Zuwara on December 30, located about 120 kilometers west of the capital, Tripoli.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, it suffered difficulty and flipped over as it was nearing Lampedusa, according to statements from those who survived the ordeal.
The distance from Libya to Lampedusa is roughly about 300 kilometers at sea, but many migrant boats lack navigational tools to travel the most direct way. Many migrant shipwrecks occur in open waters far from any land.
Many people meanwhile also die well before reaching European waters on their small boat crossings; earlier in the week, two migrants died just after departing from the Tunisian coast.
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Mediterranean boat crossings continue to cost lives
The irregular migration route from northern Africa to southern Europe is regarded as one of the most dangerous in the world, with almost 24,500 people dying or disappearing on the Mediterranean crossing in the past ten years, according to IOM.
Most of the deaths have been attributed to small boats setting off from the coasts of Tunisia as well as Libya.
Meanwhile, about 66,000 people have managed to reach Italy in 2024, according to the interior ministry in Rome -- less than half the number in 2023.
This decline in arrival numbers can at least partially be attributed to an increasingly aggressive migration policy introduced by Italy's right-wing government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the past two years.
with Reuters, dpa
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