Central Mediterranean News

Two merchant vessels near the Italian coast recovered the bodies of two migrants and rescued 32 survivors from a boat trying to cross to Europe from Libya on Easter weekend, rescue charities said, citing the survivors as saying 71 others were lost at sea.The victims were transferred to an Italian coast guard patrol boat and brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa, said the groups Mediterranea Saving Humans and Sea-Watch.Italy's interior ministry said it had no comment on the report. The Italian Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At least 42 migrants are missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat capsized off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday.Libyan authorities rescued seven survivors who had drifted at sea for six days after the vessel, carrying 49 people, sank near the Al Buri oilfield, an offshore facility north-northwest of the Libyan coast.IOM said the migrants were from Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Somalia.Libya has become a transit route for migrants…

A migrant boat carrying around 35 people sailing from Libya capsized in the central Mediterranean leaving one confirmed dead and two dozen missing, UNICEF country coordinator for Italy said on Sunday.The rescue operation was carried out on Friday off the coast of Italy's Lampedusa Island by the Italian Coast Guard, which saved 11 migrants, including four children travelling alone, and recovered the body of a pregnant woman, UNICEF's Nicola Dell'Arciprete said.The survivors and the body were brought to Lampedusa, while the remaining passengers remain unaccounted for.The boat capsized after two

At least 26 people died in a migrant shipwreck off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday and 60 were brought ashore, the coastguard said, adding that the death toll was still provisional amid ongoing search operations.The disaster, in this case involving people travelling from Libya, is the latest to befall migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe.An Italian law enforcement aircraft spotted a capsized boat with bodies in the water about 14 miles (23 km) off Lampedusa on Wednesday morning…

Greek shipping companies calling at Russian ports are boosting their vessels' defences after a series of mysterious blasts in recent months have damaged tankers linked to Moscow's oil trade according to six Greek shipping and security sources.The measures include underwater inspections by divers to check for foreign objects, two of the Greek sources familiar with the strategy said.Western countries have hit Russia with waves of sanctions over its war in Ukraine and the Group of Seven major powers has separately imposed a price cap of $60 a barrel on Moscow's oil exports…

A limpet mine may have caused a blast that damaged a Greek tanker sailing off Libya's coast last week, the fifth such incident to hit commercial shipping in the region in recent months, maritime security sources said on Tuesday.The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar with some 1 million barrels of oil when there was an explosion in the engine room, its Greece-based operator TMS said on Monday.According to initial assessments, a limpet mine was a likely cause of the blast, four maritime security sources said.A company rep

One woman died, two people were feared missing and 87 were rescued following a migrant shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa, a U.N. migration agency official said on Monday.Lampedusa lies between Tunisia, Malta and the larger Italian island of Sicily and is the first port of call for many migrants seeking to reach the EU from North Africa, in what has become one of the world's deadliest sea crossings.The migrants, initially rescued by a Tunisian fishing boat and then picked up by the Italian coastguard, arrived in Lampedusa at around 4 a.m.

An international NGO that intends to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea said on Sunday it was in talks with Malta's government about allowing the vessel to enter Maltese waters to repair damage caused by a drone attack.The ship "Conscience" run by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition suffered damage to its front section including a loss of power when hit by two drones just outside Maltese territorial waters in the central Mediterranean early on Friday, the NGO said.The coalition…

Volunteer lifeguards from Spanish charity Open Arms assisted 54 migrants stranded on a rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness.The group said it gave the passengers, who were mainly Syrian nationals, life jackets and water after alerting the Italian Coast Guard, which later took them to Lampedusa.The central Mediterranean is one of the most dangerous routes for refugees seeking asylum in Europe. Last year…

Saving migrants from one of the shipwrecks that have left dozens dead or missing off Italy's shores involved walking through bodies to find barely alive survivors, the NGO captain involved in one of the rescues said on Tuesday.One boat with 51 survivors and 10 bodies was intercepted about 90 kilometres (56 miles) south of the island of Lampedusa, while another was spotted about 200 kilometres east of the southern Italian region of Calabria.Eleven survivors from the second shipwreck and the body of a woman were taken ashore on Monday…

Italian authorities on Wednesday said forty-one migrants are thought to have died in a shipwreck last week in the central Mediterranean, according to accounts by survivors who have been taken to the island of Lampedusa.Local public prosecutor Salvatore Vella confirmed media reports that four people who survived the shipwreck told rescuers they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.Vella's office has opened an investigation into the incident.The 7-meter-long boat set off on Thursday morning from Tunisia's Sfax…

Italian authorities said on Wednesday they had impounded a ship involved in migrant rescue operations in the central Mediterranean Sea, citing safety procedure irregularities.Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government, installed last year, Italy has taken a tougher stance towards migrant rescue NGOs, accusing them of facilitating the work of people traffickers.The Ocean Viking ship was seized while docked in the port of Civitavecchia, northwest of Rome on the Mediterranean coast."In particular, some of the crew did not possess the necessary licenses to handle the life-saving e

Survivors of a boat disaster that likely killed hundreds of migrants near Greece have given accounts of traffickers in North Africa cramming them into a clapped-out fishing trawler. They recounted hellish conditions above and below deck, with no food or water.Some also said the tragic end, when it came, was precipitated by the actions of the Greek coastguard. They have told judicial authorities of a doomed attempt to tow the overloaded trawler that caused the vessel to capsize…

Rescuers scoured seas off Greece on Thursday in a massive search operation, as hopes dwindled of finding survivors of a shipwreck that killed at least 78 migrants in one of Europe's deadliest such disasters in recent years.Reports suggested hundreds of people had packed the fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday in deep waters about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos, while being shadowed by the Greek coast guard. As dawn broke on Thursday, a coast guard vessel sailed into the nearby port city of Kalamata, transferring victims.

A boat carrying about 500 migrants, including a newborn baby and pregnant women, has disappeared in the central Mediterranean, two charities said on Friday. Alarm Phone, a group that picks up calls from migrant vessels in distress, said it lost contact with the boat on Wednesday morning. At the time, the boat was adrift, with no working engine, in high seas about 320 km (200 miles) north of the Libyan port of Benghazi and more than 400 km away from Malta or Italy's southern island of Sicily.

Thirty people are missing and 17 were rescued in the central Mediterranean on Sunday after the boat in which they were travelling from Libya capsized in bad weather, Italy's coastguard said.The tragedy comes just weeks after a Feb. 26 shipwreck near the southern region of Calabria, in which at least 79 died. Alarm Phone, a charity that picks up calls from migrant vessels in distress, assumed the 30 people were dead and blamed Italy for not sending its coastguard despite being repeatedly alerted on Saturday that the boat was in trouble."Clearly…

The Italian coastguard launched multiple rescue operations on Friday to save hundreds of migrants packed aboard several boats off the toe of Italy, less than two weeks after at least 73 drowned in a shipwreck."More than 1,000 people are in danger," the coastguard said in a statement.The president of the southern Calabria region, Roberto Occhiuto, said a total of around 1,300 migrants were aboard boats which the European Union's border force Frontex had warned could run into problems.Three…

Italy has arrested three people who they believe trafficked up to 200 migrants aboard a wooden boat that smashed apart on rocks off southern Italy on Sunday, killing at least 64 people, police said on Tuesday. Lieutenant Colonel Alberto Lippolis said a Turkish man and two Pakistani nationals had sailed the boat from Turkey to Italy despite the terrible weather, and were identified by survivors as "the main culprits of the tragedy"."According to initial investigations, they allegedly asked the migrants for about 8…

Rescuers recovered four more bodies on Monday, a day after a wooden sailboat carrying migrants to Europe smashed onto rocks in stormy weather off southern Italy, bringing the death toll to 63, including at least 14 children.Rescuers said most of the migrants came from Afghanistan, as well as from Iran, Somalia, Syria and elsewhere. Pakistan's foreign ministry said 20 Pakistani citizens were on the boat, with four missing and 16 survivors of the nighttime shipwreck.Many of the victims washed ashore close to where the vessel sank near Steccato di Cutro…

Eight migrants were found dead, and around 40 were rescued by the Italian coast guard overnight on a ship off the coast of the island of Lampedusa, Italian media reported on Friday. The rescuers took the survivors to the main port on Lampedusa, which lies to the south of Sicily, news agency ANSA said. Italian authorities escorted another three stricken vessels carrying 156 people to Lampedusa, one of the main entry points for people trying to reach Europe. Italy is facing a surge in arrivals from North Africa.

OPV P71, a new 246 ft. (75m), 50-million Euro flagship of the Armed Forces of Malta -- the largest patrol vessel ever built by Cantiere Navale Vittoria -- today entered the port of La Valletta to start its missions of surveillance, coastal and offshore surveillance and SAR operations in the Central Mediterranean.Measuring 74.8 x 13m with a draft of 3.8m and a full load displacement of over 2,000 tons, OPV P71 can accommodate a crew of nearly 50 and an additional 20 staff. The platform is characterized by an elevated bridge with 360-degree vision capabilities…

Sea rescue charities on Thursday condemned tough anti-immigration measures recently introduced by the Italian government, saying the new rules will cause ever more deaths in the Mediterranean.The decree, which was introduced last week, says charity ships must request a port and sail to it "without delay" after a rescue, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress, as it now happens.Ship captains risk fines of 50,000 euros ($52,760) and having their boats…

Italy's new anti-immigration decree that aims to curtail NGO rescue ships should be scrapped as it violates international law, a top Catholic bishop said, in an unusually blunt attack against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government.The decree, which was introduced in December, forces charity-run ships to request a port and sail to it "without delay" after a rescue, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress, as generally used to occur."The fate of the decree should only be its repeal…