(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 12 - Thirty migrants are missing in the tides 17 were rescued by a merchant ship in the sinking of a rubber dinghy on which there were 47 people today.
The vessel was in Libyan Sar waters, according to reports from the Italian Coast Guard.
The search for the missing migrants continues with the help of the merchant ships present in the area, and two other merchant ships are arriving and are reaching the area where the dinghy capsized while being rescued by the Froland merchant ship.
Two Frontex aircraft assets were also flying over.
The freighter Froland will disembark two wounded migrants in Malta and then she will reach Italy.
"The rescue intervention - says the Coast Guard - took place outside the Italian Sar area of responsibility, recording the inactivity of the other National Maritime Coordination and Rescue Centers involved by area".
Raising the alarm for the dinghy drifting yesterday was Alarm Phone with a tweet in the middle of the night.
"We have lost contact with the 47 people and we are very worried! The so-called Libyan coast guard - reported the NGO that alerted rescue at sea - told us that the Italian authorities would coordinate the rescue but did not provide any information. The people must be rescued and brought to safety in Europe now".
In a subsequent tweet, Alarm Phone broke the news of the sinking claiming that "
the Italian authorities knowingly delayed the rescue and left the migrants to die". The Mediterranean NGO had tweeted that "since yesterday the Italian authorities had given instructions to the merchant ships present in the area, assuming #Sar coordination.
But the merchant ships were limited to observing for 24 hours". "One must never exploit what is happening", said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. "I am convinced, knowing the Coast Guard, the Italian Navy and the Guardia di Finanza, that these men of the sea never leave anyone without help". (ANSA).