ROME: Italy’s coastguard said on Sunday two migrants died after they were rescued along with more than 30 others in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Sicily.

The coastguard said it received a distress call late Saturday from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying Syrian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants.

Search and rescue operations began after the coastguard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but “the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached,” it said in a statement.

Although 34 people were recovered from the water, put onto the patrol boat and transferred to Syracuse’s port, one died upon arrival and another after reaching the hospital.

“The search at sea for a missing person who was on board the vessel, which later sank, is currently under way,” it said.

The coastguard said it was investigating how the migrants ended in the water as the boat approached.

At least 384 migrants died in the first quarter of this year crossing by sea via the central Mediterranean route towards Italy and Malta, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 21 Jan, 2025

Trump 2.0

Few have forgotten how disruptive Trump could be as president. There has been little indication that his 2nd term will be any different.
GB’s status
21 Jan, 2025

GB’s status

THE demand raised by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan for constitutional clarity and provisional provincial status is...
Panda bond
Updated 21 Jan, 2025

Panda bond

ISLAMABAD’S plans to raise $200m from China’s capital markets through the inaugural issue of a Panda bond this...
At breaking point
Updated 20 Jan, 2025

At breaking point

The country’s jails serve as monuments to bureaucratic paralysis rather than justice.
Lower growth
20 Jan, 2025

Lower growth

THE IMF has slightly marked down its previous growth forecast for Pakistan’s economy from 3.2pc to 3pc for the...
Nutrition challenge
20 Jan, 2025

Nutrition challenge

WHEN a country’s children go hungry, its future withers. In Pakistan, where over 40pc of children under five are...