AGRIGENTO – The Sea Watch 3 rescued 34 people from a shipwreck discovered in the central Mediterranean on Saturday and took them to Lampedusa, adding to a total of 831 migrants to arrive on the island in the two-day period, the coast guard said.

 The shipwreck, the second to be found in less than a week, is estimated to have claimed some 19 lives. Migrants told the crew of the Sea Watch 3 that there were 53 on the boat and that many of their travel companions and family members drowned during the crossing.

 The NGO ship wrote on Twitter that the Libyan Coast Guard had also been present but did not intervene.

 “Yesterday the crew of Sea Watch 3 witnessed a tragedy in the central Mediterranean. After receiving a mayday, we arrived at the scene of a shipwreck, a dinghy was sinking and dozens of people were in the water.”

 “The so-called Libyan Coast Guard was in place and the situation was extremely chaotic. We had information on at least 50 people in distress, we saved 34. We fear that many have drowned.”

 It was the fifth rescue operation that the NGO carried out within 24 hours. The crew of the Sea Watch is providing assistance to more than 200 people, many of whom are in need of urgent medical attention.

 Meanwhile, at dawn on Saturday there were two landings in Lampedusa, the first with 87 migrants, the other with 85. Within 24 hours, 510 people arrived on the island in 12 different small boats.

 The number of occupants in the Lampedusa migrant landing centre has increased from two to 831 people in less than 48 hours. The migrants come mainly from Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Niger and Eritrea. 

 Faced with the new wave of landings and the overcrowded migrant centre, the prefecture of Agrigento - in agreement with the Interior Ministry - has ordered the transfer of 127 migrants to Porto Empedocle, also in the Agrigento region.

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