Another tragic incident of shipwreck has been reported from Italy’s southern coast in which several Pakistanis were killed while others are still missing.
Reports shared by international media said more than two dozen children were among the victims who lost lives in migrant shipwrecks. Aid groups, coastguard officials, and U.N. agencies reported the events on Monday.
German aid organization RESQSHIP saved more than 50 people from a sinking wooden boat, and discovered 10 bodies trapped in the boat’s lower deck. The survivors were moved to the Italian coastguard and brought ashore on Monday morning.
A statement issued by UN refugee agency UNHCR, said the vessel departed from Libya, carrying migrants from Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and Bangladesh.
The ill-fated ship wrecked in east of the Italian region of Calabria. Survivors recounted 66 people unaccounted for, including at least 26 children, some only a few months old.
Such heart-wrenching incidents underscore central Mediterranean’s notoriety as one of the world’s most perilous migration routes. Thousands of illegal migrants have died or gone missing in its waters in last one decade, per UN records.
Lately, 11 bodies were recovered off the coast of Libya, and last year, a migrant boat that had departed from Turkey crashed into rocks near the town of Cutro in Calabria, resulting in at least 94 deaths.
Pakistanis were singled out, forced below deck by crew in capsized migrant boat in Greece
