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Migrant Boat Flips Off Italy, 7 Dead

Senegalese men walk off the "Vincenzo Padre" fishing boat where they work as fishermen, in the Island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
Senegalese men walk off the "Vincenzo Padre" fishing boat where they work as fishermen, in the Island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
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Migrant Boat Flips Off Italy, 7 Dead

Senegalese men walk off the "Vincenzo Padre" fishing boat where they work as fishermen, in the Island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
Senegalese men walk off the "Vincenzo Padre" fishing boat where they work as fishermen, in the Island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

A migrant boat overturned Wednesday off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa just as rescue crews were arriving, and seven bodies were pulled from the sea, authorities said.

Another 46 people were rescued and the search is continuing for any others. An estimated 60 people were packed onto the 8-meter (25-foot) boat, The Associated Press quoted Italy's coast guard as saying in a statement.

Two coast guard ships had responded to a distress call from a migrant boat 7 miles off Lampedusa. As the rescuers neared, the passengers “suddenly shifted” their positions, likely causing the boat to flip, the statement said.

Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland, is one of the main destinations of Libyan-based human traffickers.

Nearly 20,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, three times as many as this time last year and nearly 10 times as many as in 2019, according to Interior Ministry statistics.

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Aid Group: More than 10,000 Migrants Died this Year Trying to Reach Spain by Sea

FILE - Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)
FILE - Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)
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Aid Group: More than 10,000 Migrants Died this Year Trying to Reach Spain by Sea

FILE - Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)
FILE - Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)

More than 10,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea this year, a report released by a Spanish migration rights group said on Thursday.
On average, that means 30 migrants died every day this year attempting to reach the country by boat, Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said. Overall deaths rose 58% compared to last year, the report added, according to The Associated Press.
Tens of thousands of migrants left West Africa in 2024 for the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago close to the African coast that has increasingly been used as a stepping stone to continental Europe.
Caminando Fronteras said most of the 10,457 deaths recorded up until Dec. 15. took place along that crossing, the so-called Atlantic route — considered one of the world's most dangerous.
The organization compiles its figures from families of migrants and official statistics of those rescued. It included 1,538 children and 421 women among the dead. April and May were the deadliest months, the report said.
Caminando Fronteras also noted a “sharp increase” in 2024 in boats leaving from Mauritania, which it said became the main departure point on the route to the Canary Islands.
In February, Spain pledged 210 million euros (around $218 million) in aid to Mauritania to help it crack down on human smugglers and prevent boats from taking off.
Spain’s interior ministry says more than 57, 700 migrants reached Spain by boat until Dec. 15 this year, a roughly 12% increase from the same period last year. The vast majority of them came through the Atlantic route.