Over 40 missing after migrant shipwreck in Mediterranean Sea

The Italian Coast Guard recovered six bodies and was searching for up to 40 migrants after a rubber dinghy that departed from Tunisia sank in the central Mediterranean, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday.

Another 10 people, including four women, were rescued Tuesday and brought to Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa.

The Red Cross said they were in good condition and were receiving psychological care.

Aircraft from the European border agency Frontex, the Italian coast guard and others were assisting in the search, due to difficult sea conditions, the coast guard said.

Survivors said some 56 people were in the dinghy when it departed from the Tunisian port of Sfax on Monday, UNHCR said.

The boat started to deflate a few hours later.

The people on board were from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali, the UNHCR said.

"UNHCR urges states to join forces to strengthen search and rescue mechanisms at sea and promote wider access to safe and regular channels (for migration)," said Filippo Ungaro, spokesman for UNHCR Italy.

The UN Missing Migrant Project puts the number of the dead and missing in the perilous central Mediterranean at over 24,506 from 2014 to 2024, many of them lost at sea.

The project says the number may be greater, as many deaths go unrecorded.

So far this year, 8,963 migrants have arrived in Italy, according to Interior Ministry figures updated Wednesday, a 4% increase over the same period last year.