Rescuers from the Ocean Viking approach a deflating rubber boat in the central Mediterranean, 2022
AT LEAST 20 people died yesterday after a boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized in international waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Sixty survivors were taken to a reception centre on the island, according to UNHCR spokesman in Italy, Filippo Ungaro.
Survivor accounts suggest the boat, which set out from Libya, was carrying between 92 and 97 people.
Authorities had recovered 20 bodies and were searching for another 12 to 17 people at the time of going to print.
It is unclear how long the group had been at sea.
Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino said the shipwreck happened “presumably at dawn.”
The figure brings the total number of people who have died making the same crossing so far this year to 695.
Almost 24,500 people have died or gone missing on Mediterranean crossings over the past decade, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The deadliest shipwreck off Lampedusa was on October 3 2013, when a vessel carrying more than 500 migrants caught fire and capsized, killing at least 368.
