The Italian Coast Guard carried out the rescue operation on Friday off the coast of Lampedusa island, saving 11 migrants — including four unaccompanied children — and recovering the body of a pregnant woman, according to UNICEF’s Nicola Dell’Arciprete.
The survivors and the recovered body were brought to Lampedusa, while the remaining passengers remain unaccounted for. The boat reportedly capsized after spending two days at sea, Dell’Arciprete added.
In a separate incident on Sunday, two migrants were found dead and 14 others were in critical condition after Italian tax police intercepted a vessel carrying 85 people from Pakistan, Eritrea, and Somalia, the AGI news agency reported.
The critically ill migrants and the bodies were transferred onto Coast Guard units about 16 nautical miles off Lampedusa and taken ashore for medical treatment.
The waters off Lampedusa have seen a series of migrant tragedies in recent days. On Friday, about 20 people were reported missing following another shipwreck.
In a separate event, on Sunday two migrants were found dead and 14 others were in critical condition when Italian tax police intercepted a boat with 85 people on board from Pakistan, Eritrea and Somalia, the AGI news agency reported.
The 14 migrants in need of assistance and the two bodies were transferred onto two Coast Guard units 16 nautical miles off the Lampedusa coast and brought ashore to be transferred to hospitals, AGI said.
More than 32,700 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean since 2014, including an estimated one in five who were children, according to data from United Nations agencies, Dell’Arciprete said.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, on Saturday said on social media platform X that at least 916 migrants had died in the central Mediterranean so far in 2025.