Ship sinks off Italy, nearly 80 dead or missing

The Italian Coast Guard is currently conducting a search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean, hours after the sinkings. Earlier, a merchant ship in the area launched an initial rescue operation after sending out an SOS signal when it spotted a sailboat in distress about 120 miles off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy. The ship rescued 12 people and assisted them until an Italian Coast Guard vessel arrived in the area.

According to information from the Italian Coast Guard, a woman died shortly after reaching shore due to a serious deterioration in her health. Currently, the search for the missing people continues with the participation of two patrol boats and an ATR42 aircraft. As of the evening of June 17, the above force has not found any more missing people.

Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation into the sinkings - the latest in a string of deadly accidents involving migrants and refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Earlier, a rescue ship of the German aid group Resqship found 10 dead migrants and rescued 51 others on a boat in distress off the coast of Malta, near the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to Italy's Rai News 24 TV channel, these people were mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt and Syria.

Migrants travelling by boat across the Mediterranean often face high risks and mortality rates due to bad weather conditions and poor quality of boats. According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 1,000 people have died or gone missing while crossing the Mediterranean so far this year, down from 3,155 in 2023.