At least 27 migrants have died after two boats attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy capsized. Around 60 people were rescued off the coast of the island of Lampedusa, but the search for others still missing continues. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 700 people have already lost their lives in the central Mediterranean since the start of the year. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deepest condolences" to the victims’ families, while a UNHCR representative said the tragedy had caused "a profound sense of grief."
More than 90 people were on board the two boats, said Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). One of the passengers, a Somali woman, told La Repubblica newspaper that she had lost her husband and one-year-old daughter in the disaster: "Everything turned to chaos. I never saw them again—my baby slipped from my hands, and I lost them both."
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The exact cause of the disaster remains unknown. Survivors told La Repubblica that one boat capsized first, prompting its passengers to climb aboard the other, which soon began taking on water and also sank. "We set out in two boats, but one overturned, and everyone moved to the other. Then it too began to sink," one eyewitness was quoted as saying.
In her statement, Meloni said: "When a tragedy like today’s occurs and dozens of people perish in the waters of the Mediterranean, we are overcome with a deep sense of grief and compassion. And we see the inhuman cynicism of human traffickers who organize these deadly journeys."
Lampedusa, home to a migrant reception center, receives tens of thousands of people each year who risk crossing the Mediterranean in overcrowded and poorly equipped vessels. According to the IOM, since 2014 at least 25,000 people have gone missing or died along the central Mediterranean route.