Sawt Falasteen - At least 26 migrants dead in two shipwrecks off Italy

Around 60 people were rescued after the sinkings in the central Mediterranean, a stretch between North Africa and Italy described by the UN as the world's most dangerous sea crossing for migrants.

The two boats had left Tripoli, Libya, earlier in the day, according to the Italian coastguard.

It said one of the boats started taking on water, causing people to climb onto the other boat, which itself then capsized.

"Currently 60 people have been rescued and disembarked in Lampedusa, and (there are) at least 26 victims. The toll is still provisional and being updated," the coastguard said in a statement.

Italy's Red Cross, which manages Lampedusa's migrant reception centre, said the survivors included 56 men and four women, updating a previous toll of 22 dead.

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.

- 'Inhumane' traffickers -

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.

Lampedusa, just 90 miles (145 kilometres) off the coast of Tunisia, is often the first port of call for people trying to reach Europe in leaky or overcrowded boats.

In recent years, Italian authorities have sought to intercept the boats at sea before they arrive.

It was a helicopter from Italy's financial police that spotted a capsized boat and several bodies in the water on Wednesday, about 14 nautical miles off Lampedusa, the coastguard said.

Five vessels were searching for survivors, including one from the EU's Frontex border agency, alongside a helicopter and two aircraft, it said.

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 refugee agency said Wednesday that there had 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.

A similar number was recorded at the same time last year, but the figure is significantly less than in 2023, when almost 100,000 people had arrived by mid-August.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST