Tunisian coastguard says 54 people were saved and 14 bodies were recovered from a sunken boat filled with migrants hoping to make it to Europe.
At least five people have died and 10 others have been reported missing after a boat carrying migrants sank off the Tunisian coast as it tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
Around 600 refugees will be distributed to different regions in southern Italy to disburden the refugee centre, says Interior Ministry.
Seven migrants and asylum seekers have died, suffering from severe hypothermia, in a packed wooden boat off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The boy was spotted by rescuers in the midst of some 70 men in a boat, which landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvini was present for the opening day of the trial for his actions preventing migrant landings in Sicily in 2019.
So far this year some 44,000 people have reached European shores by crossing the central Mediterranean from Tunisia and Libya, often at the hands of smugglers who put them on unseaworthy boats.
Migrants believed to have started their journey in Tunisia, Italian officials say.
PM Mario Draghi wanted to propose at May 24 summit that EU make a deal with Libya to offer financial aid in exchange for hosting refugees, local media had reported.
The island's mayor appealed to the Italian government to deal with the issue after local media reported that many people took to sleeping on mattresses outdoors after the housing centre had filled up.
The woman was staying at a migrant holding centre designed to hold about 100 people but in recent days has been home to nearly 10 times as many due to a pickup in arrivals.
The boat, which survivors said had departed from Libya taking advantage of a respite in bad weather, was believed to be carrying some 170 people.
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