Between Thursday, August 3 and Friday, August 4, 41 migrants are believed to have died in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea.
The iron barge, which left from Sfax, Tunisia, appears to have capsized during navigation in dangerous weather, UNHCR, UNICEF and IOM report. Dangerous weather conditions make crossings in iron barges particularly perilous for navigation, the three UN organizations highlight.
According to the testimonies of the four survivors – an unaccompanied 13-year-old child, a woman and two men – they were rescued by a merchant ship and brought to safety in Lampedusa today by the Italian Coast Guard. The survivors reported that 41 people remain missing, including three children.
The four survivors clung to the boat’s debris to keep afloat. The four were rescued in the Strait of Sicily and then handed over to the Italian coastguard, who brought them to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
