At least 26 migrants dead in shipwreck off Italy's Lampedusa

Updated 8.15pm

At least 26 migrants died after a boat overturned in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, with many more still missing, the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Italian Coastguard said. 

"Deep anguish for the umpteenth shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors. It looks to be 20 bodies found and as many missing," wrote the agency's spokesman, Filippo Ungaro, on social media. 

Italian news agency Radio Radicale said the boat had been carrying 95 people when it shipwrecked 14 nautical miles south of Lampedusa in the Italian SAR area. 

In a statement, the Italian Coastguard reported that according to initial information, two vessels had departed from Tripoli in the early hours of Wednesday. One of them began taking on water and the migrants are said to have transferred to the other vessel which then capsized.

So far 60 people have been rescued and have already disembarked in Lampedusa, the coastguard said.

"The toll is still provisional," they added.

Five naval units are currently engaged in the rescue operations including two coast guard patrol boats, two Guardia di Finanza patrol boats and a Frontext naval unit. A Coast guard helicopter and aircraft and a Frontex aircraft are also assisting the operation.

Save the Children Italy said that a baby girl, aged one-and-a-half, appeared to be lost in the shipwreck. 

Italy's Red Cross, which manages Lampedusa's migrant reception centre, said the survivors included 56 men and four women.

Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the UN's migration agency (IOM), said around 95 people had been on the two boats. 

Given how many had been saved, "approximately 35 victims are feared dead or missing", he wrote on social media.

Among the first to be transported to the Lampedusa mortuary were the bodies of a newborn, three children, two men and two women, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.

The boat, which had already overturned, was spotted from the air by a plane from Italy's financial police, it said. 

Migrants heading to Italy from North Africa often cross in leaky or overcrowded boats via the central Mediterranean route, one of the world's deadliest, and arrive in Lampedusa.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offered her "deepest condolences" to the victims and vowed to step up efforts to tackle migrant traffickers.

Her hard-right government took office in October 2022 vowing to cut the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

As part of this, it has cut deals with North African countries from which migrants embark, providing funding and training in exchange for help in stemming departures. 

"When a tragedy like today's occurs, with the deaths of dozens of people in the waters of the Mediterranean, a strong sense of dismay and compassion arises in all of us," Meloni said in a statement.

"And we find ourselves contemplating the inhumane cynicism with which human traffickers organise these sinister journeys."

She said stepping up rescue efforts was not enough to tackle the scourge of trafficking, saying this could be done only by "preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows".

The UNHCR said Wednesday there have been 675 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route so far this year.  

As of Wednesday, 38,263 migrants have arrived on Italy's shores this year, according to the interior ministry.