The Death Shipping Of African Immigrants Towards Europe: Thousands Of Deaths, But Interests Continue To Increase

This is the condition of a boat containing 400 immigrants from Africa crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Lampedusa Island in South Italy on August 28, 2021. (EPA-EFE/Concetamen)

JAKARTA Two people were killed and more than 30 others missing, after two Tunisian boats carrying African immigrants sank in the sea around Lampedusa Island, Italy on Saturday 5 August 2023. The two boats departed from Sfax Harbor, Tunisia with 48 and 42 passengers each.

The two bodies found were a woman from Ivory Coast and her baby. According to a UN Migration Agency quoted by the BBC, Italian authorities rescued at least 57 people from a ship that sank at a distance of 23 nautical miles (46 km) southwest of Lampedusa.

The tragedy that befell an immigrant boat from Africa is the second incident in two months. In June, a boat carrying immigrants sank in Greek waters, and killed at least 78 people.

The immigrants who departed from Tunisia have been stranded on rocks near Lampedusa Island since Friday, after their boats were hit by waves and strong winds. The NGO Open Arms, who took part in the mission to save immigrants, said they had saved 195 people, who had been adrift in the ocean for more than two days in bad weather. The immigrants were deployed at the Port of Brindisi, South Italy.

"Anyone who forces them to sail in bad weather at this time is an immoral madman," said Emanuele Ricifari, head of the Agrigento Provincial Police in Sicily who was responsible for the mission to save the immigrants.

The Italian Ministry of Home Affairs said in the past year, the number of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Italy has more than doubled. In 2022 the number of immigrants was recorded at 42,600 people, but this year it swelled to 92,000!

Official Italian government records say more than 1,800 people died on reckless voyages, referred to as the world's "deadliest crossing". But according to the International Migration Organization (IMO), the number of immigrants killed in the oceans is actually far more than the official figure mentioned.

Lampedusa is the largest island, part of the Pelagie Islands cluster, Sicily in South Italy. The distance from Lampedusa Island to Tunisia, 113 km closer than to Italy's main mainland, which is 205 km away.