Three bodies have been discovered near the location of a migrant shipwreck in the waters between Italy and Greece, where over 60 individuals were reported missing, as stated by an Italian Coast Guard spokesperson on Tuesday.
The migrants were aboard a sailing boat approximately 200 kilometres east of Italy's Calabria region. On Monday, eleven survivors and the body of a woman were brought ashore, while humanitarian groups reported 64 people, including 26 children, were still unaccounted for.
The coast guard initiated a search late Monday, deploying two patrol boats, a ship, and a plane to locate the missing individuals. Details about the recovered bodies were not immediately released.
According to a joint statement from the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and UNICEF, the migrants had departed from Turkey and hailed from Iran, Syria, and Iraq. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) added that some migrants were also from Afghanistan.
Another shipwreck was reported by German sea rescue charity RESQSHIP on Monday, involving the rescue of 51 people from a wooden boat south of Lampedusa. Tragically, 10 bodies were found trapped in the vessel's lower deck.
Survivors recounted they had departed from Libya's Zuwarah port two days earlier. They indicated half of the passengers were from Bangladesh, with others from Pakistan, Syria, and Egypt.
These incidents underscore the perilous nature of the central Mediterranean migration route, recognized as one of the world's deadliest. UN data reveals that since 2014, over 23,500 migrants have either died or gone missing in these waters.
