More than 40 people are missing after a migrant boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The shipwreck took place on Thursday and at least one newborn baby is among those missing, said UNHCR representative to Italy Chiara Cardoletti. The vessel left from Sfax in Tunisia and was carrying 46 migrants from Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the UN migration agency IOM, said Friday. The boat capsized in strong winds and high waves, he said. \u201cSome survivors were taken to Lampedusa and others were brought back to Tunisia.\u201d \u201cAmong those missing were seven women and a minor. The survivors are all adult men,\u201d he added.\u201cWe have noticed more arrivals of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa than Tunisians\u201d via the Tunisian route since November, he said. He explained this was due to people from sub-Saharan Africa fleeing discrimination in Tunisia. \u201cIt is unacceptable to continue counting the dead at the gates of Europe,\u201d Cardoletti wrote on Twitter, referring to deadly shipwrecks of migrant boats which have already occurred in Italy, Greece and Spain. \u201cA coordinated and shared rescue mechanism at sea between states is now also a matter of conscience.\u201dDi Giacomo also stressed the fragility of the badly welded boats, which sank at the first damage. \u201cWe are therefore not aware of certain shipwrecks,\u201d he said, calling for \u201cpatrols of European ships to monitor the Tunisian route as well as the Libyan route, otherwise we will witness a disaster this summer.\u201d Located about 145 kilometers from the Tunisian coast, the southern Italian island of Lampedusa is one of the main entry points for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Last year, more than 46,000 people arrived there, out of a total of 105,000 in Italy, according to the UNHCR. Migrant boat shipwrecks have increased in recent months, while the number of migrants entering the EU via the central Mediterranean \u201cmore than doubled\u201d in 2023 compared to the same period last year, according to an international news agency in mid-June. Last week a crammed trawler from Libya sank off the Greek coast. The death toll stands at 82, with 104 survivors pulled from the water, but witness accounts suggest many hundreds more went down with the ship, with their remains still missing at sea. The tragedy occurred a few days after EU ministers reached agreement on a long-stalled revision of the bloc\u2019s rules to share the hosting of asylum seekers and migrants more equitably. In September 2020, the European Commission presented a New Pact on Migration and Asylum, a package of reforms which it hopes to see adopted by spring 2024 which notably concerns compulsory help between EU members in the care of asylum seekers and a strengthening of the external borders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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