The Italian Coast Guard confirmed on Wednesday that they have recovered six bodies after a boat carrying migrants sank off the southern coast earlier this week.
Over 60 people, including many children, are still missing.
The tragedy occurred approximately 120 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria on Monday morning.
Twelve survivors were rescued, but one individual, a 25-year-old woman of Iraqi origin, died after reaching shore, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.
The Coast Guard reported that they are continuing to search the area by sea and air. “So far, six bodies have been found,” they stated. ANSA identified the victims as four men and two women.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is assisting the survivors, who reported that 66 people, including at least 26 children, remain missing. Some of these children were just a few months old.
MSF’s Shaquila Mohammadi described the survivors as being in shock and clearly in pain.
“I spoke to a young man who lost his girlfriend,” she said. “Entire Afghan families are believed to have perished. They left Turkey eight days ago, and water began leaking into their boat for three or four days. They told us they traveled without life jackets, and some boats did not stop to help them.”
In another tragic incident, ten bodies were found on a migrant boat that capsized on Monday near the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to the German rescue organization ResQship.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 3,155 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean Sea last year. This year, over 1,000 migrants have already been recorded as dead or missing.
