Italian Lampedusa - Agencies
The Italian authorities continue their search for 40 migrants who disappeared after the shipwreck that occurred a few hours ago near the coast of the southern island of Lampedusa, according to the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica".
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said in statements published on the newspaper's website that of the 46 people on board the ship, only four were rescued alive, and among the missing were seven women, one of whom was traveling with a newborn.
The tragedy occurred last Friday night due to bad weather in the central Mediterranean region, which caused the ship to sink just six hours after it left the Tunisian coast of Sfax. According to the site of the seventh day of Cairo
According to the latest report by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, from January 1 to June 23, 2023, 59,767 migrants arrived on the coast of this country, 131.0 percent more than the 254,795 migrants registered in the same period last year.
In addition, 2,393 citizens arrived from Burkina Faso, 2,077 from Cameroon, and 1,612 from Mali, while 12,527 came from other countries. Of the overall total, there were 6,481 unaccompanied minors, according to the report.
While the number of landings of irregular migrants in 2021 reached 67,477, in the following year it reached 105,127, and by 2023 this last number is expected to double, because the largest number occurs mainly in the summer months, as estimated by analysts of that body.