At least 20 missing after migrant boat sinks off Italy

Seven people rescued including eight-year-old Syrian boy whose mother has not been seen since the boat sank

The Spanish migrant rescue NGO ship Open Arms is seen off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2019. AFP

At least 20 people including three children were missing after a boat they were travelling in capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The migrants set sail from the Libyan town of Zuwara, but their vessel overturned after running into difficulty in the early hours of Tuesday.

No bodies had been retrieved, but seven people were rescued. These included two Syrian men and a boy, aged eight, from the same country who was hoping to join his father who lives in Germany. His mother had not been seen since the boat sank. The others rescued were two migrants from Sudan and two from Egypt.

The survivors said five women and three children were among the missing. “They didn't make it to shore. Knowing that these poor souls were so close, but couldn't make it is even more heartbreaking,” said Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino.

The sea migration route between Africa and Europe is one of the most dangerous in the world, with almost 24,500 disappearing or dying in the central Mediterranean since 2014, the International Organisation for Migration said.

Migrants rescued at sea by the Libyan Coast Guard, after their boat sank in the Mediterranean, arrive at the port of Garaboli, east of Tripoli, in 2023. EPA

Most of those deaths occurred on boats that set sail from Libya and Tunisia. The Italian government has sought to reduce migrant departures, saying this will save lives at sea. In 2024, it recorded about 66,320 migrant landings, compared to 157,651 in 2023 and 105,131 in 2022.

Meanwhile, new figures show the number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel was up by a quarter on the previous year. A total of 36,816 people made the journey in 2024, a jump of 25 per cent from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.

The total is down 20 per cent on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022, however, making it the second highest number of arrivals in a year since data on Channel crossings began in 2018.

About 400 migrants on a boat off the island of Lampedusa, Italy, in 2021. EPA

The jump in crossings came in a year that former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak had to accept he failed to meet his vow to “stop the boats” when the Conservatives were defeated by Labour in the general election.

The change in government also meant former home secretary Suella Braverman never got to see her “dream” of sending migrants to Rwanda become reality, after the policy stalled amid legal action and was then ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. Her successor, James Cleverly, never succeeded in his bid to get flights off the ground, despite bringing amended legislation to parliament and signing another treaty with the east African nation in a bid to firm up the agreement and satisfy concerns raised by the court.

About 23,242 migrants arrived between Labour's victory on July 5 and December 31, up 29 per cent on the 18,004 arrivals in this period in 2023 and down 29 per cent on the 32,855 in 2022.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said last month that the government had a moral responsibility to tackle Channel crossings, but refused to set a deadline on when a target to see the numbers fall “sharply” would be met.

She said the UK must “go after” the gangs behind the dangerous crossings and appeared to rule out creating more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers as a way of curbing the number of attempts when facing questions from MPs.

The year 2024 was considered the deadliest for Channel crossings, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard, with 53 people dying while embarking on the journey across the busiest shipping lane in the world to reach the UK.