Several dead and more missing after migrant ships sunk across Italy and Tunisia.
A number of migrant ships, carrying at least 100 people, have sunk between Tunisia and Italy.
One of the ships sank off Tunisia’s Kerkennah islands, claiming four lives, with 51 people still currently missing, a judicial official told Reuters.
Those onboard the ship were from sub-Saharan Africa.
Two more migrant ships sunk off the coast of southern Italy, tragically taking the lives of a mother and her child, and leaving another 30 people missing.
These boats set off in rough seas, likely departing from Sfax, a migration hotspot in Tunisia, according to the coast guard.
The coast guard also said that of the two ships that sunk near Lampedusa, southern Italy, 57 people have been rescued.
The survivors were picked up 46 kilometres south-west of Lampedusa.
Another 34 migrants were also rescued from a Lampedusa cliff on Friday, after a separate shipwreck. Among these survivors was a child and two pregnant women.
Provincial police chief Emanuele Ricifari said that whoever let these migrant ships set off in such rough weather was a “crazy criminal with no scruples,” according to local news site Agrigento Oggi.
According to Interior Ministry data, both Italy and Tunisia have been experiencing an increase in sea migration recently, with Italy receiving 92,000 arrivals so far this year, and Tunisia now replacing Libya as the main departure point in the region for those fleeing from poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.
