Tragedy with migrants in Italy – Two small children charred on boat

Two children died and at least five women were injured from fire which broke out on a vessel attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europethe Italian Coast Guard and Italian media announced today.

“In agreement with the Maltese authorities, a coastguard patrol boat from (the Italian island of) Lampedusa was dispatched to the scene and recovered 38 migrants and the bodies of two minors,” the authorities said in a statement.

The two children whose charred bodies were found on the boat were aged one and two, and a 25-year-old pregnant woman believed to be the mother of one of them was taken to hospital in Palermo, according to Italian agencies.

A Tunisian fishing vessel, which arrived first on the scene, reported an explosion on board, the coast guard said.

The prosecutor’s office in Agrigento, Sicily opened an investigation after this tragedy, which was allegedly caused by an exploding gas cylinder or fuel ignition.

The rescued migrants received medical aid in Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunisia, while a woman remains missing.

THE mayor of Lampedusa, Filippo Mannino, spoke of a “hell” and invited the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to go there.

“I’ve only been mayor for 100 days and I’ve already recorded five deaths” among the many migrants who leave the north African coast every day on inflatable dinghies or dilapidated trawlers, he said.

“Europe must act without delay, it is no longer possible to let people die,” he added.

In communication that AFP had with the NGO SOS Méditerranée, the organization was unable to provide information about this tragedy.

More than 76,000 people have landed on Italian shores since the start of the year, compared with 50,000 in the same period in 2021 and 26,000 a year earlier, according to Italy’s interior ministry.

Since the beginning of the year, 1,269 migrants are missing in the central Mediterranean, the world’s most dangerous migration route, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.