41 migrants have died in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa. A group of four people who survived the disaster told rescuers that they were on a boat that had set off from Sfax in Tunisia and sank on its way to Italy. As per reports, the four survivors, originally from the Ivory Coast and Guinea, reached Lampedusa on Wednesday. The survivors, three men and a woman, told rescuers that they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.
#LampedusaShipwreck #MigrantBoatShipwreck #ItalyBoatShipwreck #MigrantBoatsSink
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#LampedusaShipwreck #MigrantBoatShipwreck #ItalyBoatShipwreck #MigrantBoatsSink
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00:00 41 migrants have died in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
00:07 A group of four people who survived the disaster told rescuers that they were on a boat that
00:12 had set off from Sfax, Indonesia and sank on its way to Italy.
00:16 As per reports, the four survivors, originally from the Ivory Coast and Guinea, reached Lampedusa
00:22 on Wednesday.
00:23 The survivors constituted of three men and a woman.
00:26 They told rescuers that they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.
00:32 They said that the boat, which was about 7-metre long, left Sfax on Thursday last week but
00:37 sank within hours after being hit by a big wave.
00:40 Only 15 people are understood to have been wearing life vests.
00:44 They added that they were rescued by a cargo ship and then transferred to an Italian Coast
00:49 Guard vessel.
00:50 The Italian Coast Guard reported two shipwrecks in the area on Sunday but it is not clear
00:54 whether this vessel is one of those.
00:56 Tunisian authorities say that Sfax, which is a port city about 130 kilometres from Lampedusa,
01:02 is a popular gateway for migrants seeking safety and a better life in Europe.
01:07 More than 1,800 people have lost their lives so far this year in the crossing from North
01:11 Africa to Europe.
01:12 In recent days, Italian patrol boats and charity groups have rescued another 2,000 people who
01:17 arrived on Lampedusa.
01:19 Tunisia has seen a wave of racism against black Africans in recent months and attempts
01:23 to leave the country by boat have increased.
01:26 The United Nations has registered more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central
01:30 Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.
01:36 Italy's far-right government has adopted a policy that forces rescue ships to dock at
01:40 ports further away rather than letting them disembark rescued migrants in Lampedusa or
01:45 Sicily.
01:46 It says that the aim is to spread arrivals across the country but NGOs say that the policy
01:50 reduces the amount of time they can patrol areas where shipwrecks are more common.
01:54 "