00:00 Italy's Coast Guard said on Sunday it had recovered two bodies and rescued 57 people
00:06 off the southern island of Lampedusa amid reports that more than 30 people were missing
00:11 after two shipwrecks.
00:13 Two migrant boats that had set off from the port of Sfax, a hotspot for Tunisia's migration
00:18 crisis, had sunk on Saturday on the way to Europe.
00:22 One boat was carrying 48 people, the second 42.
00:25 The Coast Guard had found survivors about 23 nautical miles southwest of Lampedusa,
00:30 as well as the two victims, a woman from Ivory Coast and a one-year-old child.
00:36 As per local media reports, at least 20 migrants had been stuck since Friday on a cliff after
00:40 their boat crashed against rocks upon arrival in Lampedusa.
00:44 However, the Coast Guard was unable to reach them via sea or helicopter.
00:49 NGO group Open Arms took to X and said they were able to finally begin disembarking 195
00:54 rescued sea migrants in the southern Italian port of Brindisi after more than two days
00:59 of sailing in rough seas.
01:01 This comes as the Italian government has adopted a policy that effectively assigns faraway
01:05 ports to charity ships rather than letting them disembark rescued migrants in nearer
01:10 Lampedusa or Sicily in a bid to spread arrivals across the country.
01:14 The decision has since been criticised by NGOs who said that it increases their navigation
01:19 costs, prolongs the misery of survivors and reduces the amount of time charity ships can
01:23 patrol the areas where shipwrecks are more common.
01:26 As per reports, over 2,000 people arrived in Lampedusa in the last few days after being
01:30 rescued at sea by Italian patrol boats and NGO groups.
01:34 Italy is experiencing a sharp increase in sea migration, with almost 92,000 arrivals
01:39 recorded so far this year, according to Interior Ministry data last updated on Friday, compared
01:45 with more than 42,600 in the same period in 2022.
01:49 The UN agency, the International Organization for Migration, said around 28 people were
01:54 reported lost at sea by survivors on one boat, while three were reported missing from the
01:58 second after both Bricati island boats went down in stormy weather on Saturday.
02:03 The shipwrecks have since prompted Italian authorities in Agrigento or the nearby island
02:07 of Sicily to launch an investigation.
02:10 Agrigento's chief of police, Emanuele Rettifari, said that the traffickers would have known
02:15 rough seas were forecasted in the region.
02:17 -
02:23 [Music]
