The bodies of 19 migrants were recovered from an inflatable boat south of the island of Lampedusa on Wednesday by the Italian coastguard, a spokesman told AFP.
19 migrants found dead by Italian coastguard
Migrants board on a ferry as they leave the Island of Lampedusa, Southern Italy, to be transferred in Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Friday, April 17, 2015
-
Copyright © africanews
COPYRIGHT 2015 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
Fifty-eight other people, including five children, were found alive during the rescue in the early hours of Wednesday and transported to Lampedusa, according to coastguard spokesman Roberto D'Arrigo.
Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino said seven people, including two children, were being treated in hospital for "hypothermia and intoxication from hydrocarbon fumes".
The coastguard rescue was staged some 135 kilometres (85 miles) off the Italian island inside Libyan search-and-rescue waters.
The boat was spotted drifting by an Italian reconnaissance plane on Tuesday but there were no Libyan coastguard or civilian ships in the area to assist, D'Arrigo said.
A decision was taken to send an Italian coastguard vessel from Lampedusa.
D'Arrigo said some of the migrants may have died while being transported back to Lampedusa in particularly rough weather conditions with waves up to seven metres (23 feet) high.
Images released by ANSA news agency showed what looked like body bags being taken off a coastguard vessel on a quay.
Lampedusa is a key landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, with many dying trying the dangerous journey.
"We are deeply saddened by yet another tragic incident in the Mediterranean," the UN refugee agency said on X, adding that its representatives were "providing immediate support to the survivors".
So far this year, 624 migrants have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration.
Lampedusa’s last migrant disaster occurred in August last year, when 27 people died in two shipwrecks off the coast.
According to the interior ministry, 6,117 migrants have landed on Italy's shores so far this year.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, 19 Afghan migrants, including a baby, died when an inflatable dinghy sank in the Aegean Sea off southwestern Turkey after it was challenged by a Turkish coast guard vessel.