Forty-one migrants have drowned off the Italian Island of Lampedusa after their boat capsized. Forty-five people including three children had been aboard the vessel, which had set off from the Tunisian city of Sfax last Thursday.
Four survivors, who were originally from the Ivory Coast and Guinea have given their accounts to coast guards after they had been brought ashore. The three men and a woman had actually been rescued by a cargo ship.
According to a recent report from the international organization for migration, at least, four hundred and forty-one refugees drowned between January and March, that marked the deadliest three-month period, since 2017.
The report also reveals that, over the past decade, the Mediterranean has claimed around 25000 lives. And these grim numbers do not fully capture the extent of the tragedy, as the actual death toll might be even higher.
In recent days, we have seen a number of rescues from the island of Lampedusa.
According to the BBC correspondent in Rome, Sofia Bettiza, “This is not the first tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea this year.”
She further explained that, those four migrants on being interviewed mentioned that, “they were on a boat that had set off from Tunisia on Thursday. They were trying to reach Italy. They described the vessel as a very small metal boat, whose length was just about 7 meters.”
According to the migrants, there were forty-five of them on board the boat including three children. They had travelled for about six hours, when the boat capsized. This unfortunate incident happened, when a very big wave blew in their direction causing the boat to turn leaving all forty-five of them thrown into the water.
The survivors emphasized that, out of the entire number of migrants on the boat, there were only fifteen of them wearing life vests. Following the incident, they remained stranded in the sea for several hours, before they were rescued by a cargo ship and finally brought to the island of Lampedusa.
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