At least 27 people, including a 1-year-old girl and three teenagers, died when two overloaded migrant boats capsized in rough seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday, officials said. Dozens more remain missing in what aid workers described as another “tragedy foretold” in the central Mediterranean.
The wooden vessels, carrying up to 100 people from Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan, left Tripoli, Libya, late Tuesday. Survivors said one boat began taking on water and overturned; the second, already crowded, capsized soon after. Sixty people were rescued, but as many as 40 are feared lost at sea.
Search crews recovered bodies from the water and inside a sunken boat, as Italy’s Coast Guard and other agencies mounted a daylong operation.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi expressed “profound condolences” and called for urgent efforts to prevent dangerous journeys “from the territories of departure.” Premier Giorgia Meloni said she felt “dismay and compassion” for the victims, and pledged to fight human traffickers “in the only possible way: by preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows.”
