No fewer than 40 people have gone missing after a migrant boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the UN revealed on Friday night.
According to Chiara Cardoletti, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Italy, the shipwreck occurred on Thursday, and at least one newborn baby is among those missing.
46 migrants from Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and the Ivory Coast were aboard the ship when it departed Sfax, Tunisia, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the UN migration organization IOM.
The boat capsized in strong winds and high waves, he said. ‘Some survivors were taken to Lampedusa and others were brought back to Tunisia’.
He further revealed that; ‘Among those missing were seven women and a minor. The survivors are all adult men’.
‘We have noticed more arrivals of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa than Tunisians’ via the Tunisian route since November, he said
He went further to explain that this was due to people from sub-Saharan Africa fleeing discrimination in Tunisia.
‘It is unacceptable to continue counting the dead at the gates of Europe’, Cardoletti said.
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.
This is coming a fortnight after it was reported that no fewer than 22 people died when a tourist boat capsised in India, officials revealed with many of those on board thought to be children.
The double-decker boat, which was carrying at least 30 people, capsized late on Sunday in the Malappuram district in Kerala’s southern state.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the wrecked ship was partially submerged, and throughout the entire night, dozens of people searched for survivors within and around it.