German charity rescuers says at least 11 people have died and more than 60 are missing as a result of two shipwrecks off the coast of southern Italy.
According to them, they picked up 51 people from a sinking, wooden boat and found 10 bodies trapped in the lower deck near the island of Lampedusa on Monday.
In a separate incident on the same day, Médecins Sans Frontières also reported that more than 60 people were missing, with 26 of them feared to be children.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN children’s agency (UNICEF) said in a joint statement that the boat had set off from Libya, and was carrying migrants from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
MSF’s Shakilla Mohammadi said she heard from survivors that 66 people were unaccounted for, including at least 26 children, some only a few months old.
According to UN data, the Mediterranean is the deadliest known migration route in the world with report of more than 23,500 migrants dieing or missing in the waters since 2014.
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