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LAMPEDUSA (Italy) — Italian coastguards recovered the bodies of 13 women who died after a crowded migrant boat capsized in bad weather as rescue craft approached it off the coast of Lampedusa, local authorities said on Monday.
The coastguard said 13 men and nine women survived the sinking of the boat, which was carrying more than 50 people when the disaster struck. Many of the migrants are still not accounted for, including a number of children.
“The boat was in no condition to make the crossing,” said Italian magistrate Salvatore Vella, who is investigating the disaster. “It is strange they put to sea in such bad weather.”
Vella said most of the passengers came from Tunisia or sub-Saharan Africa. None of them had life jackets.
The boat appeared to have started its voyage in Libya and stopped in neighbouring Tunisia, he added, before heading north towards Lampedusa, an Italian island which sits below Sicily and is a magnet for migrants seeking a new life in Europe.
“Most of the survivors . . . are only alive thanks to the courage of the men of the coastguard and the police,” he said.
A coastguard and a police boat spotted the listing migrant boat just after midnight about 6 nautical miles from the coast of Lampedusa, having picked up a call for help late on Sunday.
“In order to proceed with the transfer operation, the naval units approached the small boat, but the adverse weather conditions and the sudden movement of migrants caused the vessel to overturn,” the coastguard said.
Coffins were lined up on the quay of the small port of Lampedusa as a coastguard ship entered harbour on Monday, bringing the bodies to shore.
Charlie Yaxley, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, said more than 1 000 people had died in the Mediterranean so far this year, most trying to cross from lawless Libya to Europe. — Al Jazeera
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter