Search for migrants after boat capsizes

More than 90 migrants, believed to be Tunisian, are feared dead after their boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa early yesterday morning.

The Italian coastguard managed to rescue about 54 people, including a pregnant woman. They also recovered a body but a search for the rest of the missing migrants remained unsuccessful.

The wooden fishing boat they were on sank about 12 miles from the Italian island, triggering a search by the Italian coastguard and Nato.

The vessel went down close to an islet, known as Lampione, from which several of the survivors were later rescued.

Some of the migrants rescued said that more than 150 people crowded the 10-metre long vessel.

The Sicilian authorities raised the alarm early on Thursday afternoon after a distress phone call was received from a Tunisian migrant aboard.

The site was only located at about 2.30am, by which time the boat had sunk.

The tragedy comes after another 58 migrants drowned on Thursday when the rickety fishing vessel they were on sank after hitting the rocks off the coast of Turkey.

Nine children were among the dead.

Several dozen survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim in the Aegean waters to shore, only 160 feet away.

Just last month, the international rights advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, decried the needless deaths taking place in the Mediterranean stressing that rescue operations were being hampered by poor coordination, disputes over responsibility, disincentives for commercial vessels to conduct rescues and an emphasis on bor-der enforcement.