Italians, NATO hunt for migrant boat survivors

ROME: Two helicopters, an aircraft and five patrol boats searched yesterday for dozens of Tunisian migrants feared drowned after their vessel sank off the coast of southern Italy’s island of Lampedusa.
The Italian coastguard and nearby NATO ships rescued 56 people from the sea Friday after a distress call from the sinking boat. One body was also found.
But coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said yesterday that survivors had given contradictory reports of how many were on board.
“Some say there were 100, others 110 or 136, and we have not found any trace at sea of what these people are telling us,” he told SkyTG24 television.
So far however there has been no sign of the wrecked boat, described as an old 10-meter (33-foot) fishing vessel, which could have gone straight to the bottom, taking many passengers with it.
Each year thousands of illegal migrants, mostly from Africa, cross the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded and makeshift boats to land in Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, seeking to enter Europe.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at least 280 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.
In Sicily six more Tunisians were picked up by police overnight near the town of Mazara del Vallo after landing from a four-meter-long boat.
Immigration Minister Saverio Ruperto told the daily Messagero that the number of arrivals so far this year had totaled some 5,000, compared with 50,000 in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring revolts.
But he called for a new conference on the issue of Mediterranean-rim and European countries.