LAMPEDUSA - A boat with over 50 migrants onboard capsized not far from the coast of Lampedusa, resulting in at least seven deaths, in the early hours of the morning.  

  The shipwreck was five miles from the Sicilian island when rescuers came to the scene. Over 45 people were successfully saved. According to the survivors’ testimonies, there are more people to save, with  nine lost at sea. The public prosecutor of Agrigento has opened a case for those who are yet to be rescued, according to AdnKronos. 

  A GSM signal from a migrant’s phone, on board the eight-metre boat, signalled that they were in difficulty. The Coast Guard, in two patrol boats, came immediately, as well as the health team from CISOM that brought round five people.  

  Exactly what happened is still to be ascertained but the saved migrants, as well as the corpses, have since been transported to the Favarolo jetty. The Coast Guard as well as the Italian finance police are continuing the research into how the tragedy took place. Among the seven corpses brought to the jetty were four women - one of which was heavily pregnant.    

  “One does not want to be aware of what is happening in the Mediterranean, the solidarity that will arrise from this does not count for anything. Solidarity should be true and concrete,” said the mayor of Lampedusa, Totò Martello, after the umpteenth tragedy. Martello underlined President Mario Draghi’s silence: “the silence continues in the discussions between the mayor of Lampedusa and the president. Two weeks have passed, if not more, from when I asked to be called to discuss what is happening in the Mediterranean. And being physically on the land, I could certainly bear a different vision on the phenomenon.” 

  “Five people drowned a few miles from Lampedusa", said the deputy of LeU, Erasmo Palazzotto, on Twitter. "Umpteenth gauntly shipwreck. Umpteenth tragedy at sea. Umpteenth neglect to rescue. It is necessary to reactive a European rescue deployment. And we need it now. Before shipwrecks are our civilisation.” 

  The shipwrecked boat was not the only one to arrived that night, in Lampedusa. 256 migrants arrived on the island, in four separate boats from 3:30 am.

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