- Title: At least nine die, 22 rescued from migrant boat off Sicily
- Date: 7th October 2019
- Summary: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY (OCTOBER 7, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EMERGENCY SERVICES ON PORT SIDE WITH COFFINS ON GROUND BODY BAG BEING PLACED PORT SIDE NEXT TO COFFIN
- Embargoed: 21st October 2019 13:05
- Keywords: Migrants migrant rescue Italian coastguard
- Location: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
- City: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001B03M7UV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At least nine people died when a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the coast of the island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, Italy's coastguard said on Monday (October 7).
The coastguard said rescue vessels had picked up 22 people, and search operations for other survivors were underway after an alert was received late on Sunday night that a boat carrying some 50 people was in difficulty.
The U.N. migration agency said the boat had set sail from Tunisia and had been carrying Tunisian and West African migrants.
Vessels from the coastguard and customs police had reached the vessel, which overturned in rough seas about six nautical miles from the coast of Lampedusa, the coastguard said in a statement. Nine bodies had been recovered, it added.
The Italian interior ministry says some 7,939 migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, down 63% on the same period in 2018 and 93% on 2017 levels.
(Production: Vladimir Pantaleone, Gabriele Pileri, Eleanor Biles) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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