Italian Coast Guard Recovers 6 Bodies After Shipwreck Which Left 21 Missing
Italian Coast Guardian shipping. Photo: X/ @FrancoScarsell2
September 8, 2024 Hour: 2:34 pm
The Italian coast guard has transported on Sunday to the South African island of Lampedusa the 6 bodies it recovered off its shores, several days after a shipwreck in the Mediterranean left 21 migrants missing, including 3 children.
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The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Agrigento, in Sicily, has taken care of the transfer of the corpses to the burial chamber of the island cemetery.
The bodies, found in a state of advanced decomposition, could belong to some of the victims of that same shipwreck, given the coordinates of the meeting point where 7 people were rescued, of Syrian nationality, local media indicate.
Lampedusa and Linosa’s mayor, Filippo Mannino said that “We had hoped, in the hours following the rescue of the 7 Syrians, that the patrol boats of the coast guard would manage to find the missing people alive. But the passage of time has made all hope lost.”
The boat, with a total of 28 migrants, sailed off the coast of Libya on 1 September and partially sank some 24 hours later, according to survivors, who detailed that among the missing there are more people with Syrian nationality and also with citizenship of Sudan.
The rescued were adrift for about three days, trying to keep them in the capsized boat until they were spotted and rescued by an Italian Coast Guard patrol, authorities reported on Wednesday, when the search for the missing began with naval units and a small plane.
The central Mediterranean route, from the coasts of North Africa to Italy, is one of the most dangerous in the world, and since 2014 almost 24,000 people have disappeared in these waters after embarking on the risky journey in precarious boats.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: EFE