In the Mediterranean, attempts by makeshift boats full of migrants to reach the Italian coast continue.
A joint operation between the Mare Jonio, a vessel of the Mediterranean NGO, and a Coast Guard patrol boat made it possible to rescue 59 people, including 2 pregnant women, who were on a vessel in difficulty because it was overcrowded.
The rescue, according to the NGO Mediterranea, took place 43 miles south of Lampedusa.
The Mare Jonio Rescue Team stabilized the boat in danger, distributed life jackets and transferred the first castaways to the Italian Coast Guard patrol boat.
Forty-four migrants, including 11 women and 3 minors, were rescued during the night off the coast of Lampedusa after the small boat they were traveling on sank.
A minor is missing.
The 7-metre iron vessel, which set sail from Sfax in Tunisia, suddenly sank and the castaways remained clinging to the inner tubes for around 10 minutes.
The NGO ship "Mare Go" intervened and hoisted them on board, which then transferred them onto a coast guard patrol boat.
According to the stories of the castaways, originally from Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Mali and Senegal, a boy is missing.
Searches are underway in the area of the shipwreck.
The 44 who landed on Lampedusa at dawn are part of the 620 who landed on the island in total since midnight.
Fifteen migrants, including 2 minors, were found by the Swedish Frontex team on the islet of Lampione.
The Tunisians had been spotted while they were on board two dinghies of 3 meters each: only one with the engine which, in fact, towed the second dinghy.
The boats were seized by the Lampedusa financial police and the 15 were taken to the largest of the Pelagie islands.
They are saying that they left Tabulba in Tunisia after paying 8 thousand dinars for the crossing which was done by sight, i.e. without cell phone applications or compass.
In Lampedusa 620 migrants in the night on 13 boats
620 migrants have disembarked, starting from midnight in Lampedusa, after the patrol boats of the Capitaneria, the financial police and the Frontex structure rescued 13 boats.
Yesterday, there were 11 landings on the island, 4 of which just before midnight, with 408 people.
There are currently 1,087 migrants at the Imbriacola district hotspot.
Yesterday evening, at the disposal of the prefecture of Agrigento, 380 were embarked on the ferry that has just arrived in Porto Empedocle.
Missing is a 15-month-old girl
A 15-month-old girl was lost at sea after the shipwreck that occurred during the night off the coast of Lampedusa.
At the Imbriacola district hotspot there is the mother who can't find peace.
When the boat sank at around half past midnight, the woman was unable to hold on to the little girl who drowned.
According to the stories of the 44 survivors, the 7-metre iron boat left Sfax in Tunisia at 10pm last Thursday.
The 45 migrants paid one thousand euros each for the crossing, heading towards Sicily, using a mobile phone application.
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