Monday October 20, 2025
Mogadishu (HOL) — A migrant boat carrying around 35 people sailing from Libya capsized in the central Mediterranean, leaving one confirmed dead and about two dozen missing, UNICEF’s country coordinator for Italy said on Sunday.
The Italian Coast Guard carried out the rescue operation on Friday off the coast of Lampedusa island, saving 11 migrants — including four unaccompanied children — and recovering the body of a pregnant woman, according to UNICEF’s Nicola Dell’Arciprete.
In a separate incident on Sunday, two migrants were found dead and 14 others were in critical condition after Italian tax police intercepted a vessel carrying 85 people from Pakistan, Eritrea, and Somalia, the AGI news agency reported.
The critically ill migrants and the bodies were transferred onto Coast Guard units about 16 nautical miles off Lampedusa and taken ashore for medical treatment.
The waters off Lampedusa have seen a series of migrant tragedies in recent days. On Friday, about 20 people were reported missing following another shipwreck.
More than 32,700 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean since 2014 — including an estimated one in five who were children — according to data from United Nations agencies cited by Dell’Arciprete.