Dozens of people reportedly killed after migrant boat capsizes off Sicily - The Guardian

Dozens of people have been killed after a boat carrying migrants capsized south of Sicily on Friday, the Italian coastguard said.

It said an Italian navy ship in the area reported seeing dozens of dead, including women and children. Separately, the Italian news agency Ansa, citing unnamed sources, put the number of dead at at least 50.

About 250 people were believed to be on board the ship. Many of the survivors were taken on board Italian and Maltese ships.The incident occurred just over a week after at least 319 people drowned when a boat carrying Eritrean and Somali migrants sank near the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Last week's disaster was one of the worst in a long migrant crisis that has seen tens of thousands of people arriving in small, unsafe boats in southern Italy. Lampedusa, a tiny island located midway between Sicily and Tunisia, has borne the brunt.

According to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, 32,000 have arrived in southern Italy and Malta this year alone, about two thirds of whom have filed requests for asylum.

Although most migrants come from sub-Saharan Africa, this year many are fleeing the Syrian civil war or political turmoil in Egypt and other parts of north Africa. Many are drawn by hopes of finding work in Europe and often do not stay in Italy.