(see related story on migration compact)
(ANSAmed) - Rome, April 18 - Over 400 people, most of them
from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, travelling from Egypt aboard
migrants boats and heading towards Italy, have gone missing in
the Mediterranean, the Mail online reported on Monday citing the
BBC's Arabic service, which, in turn, referred to local media.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Rome was
trying to verify the reports.
In a separate case, six dead bodies were recovered from a
migrant dinghy rescued in choppy waters late on Sunday some 20
miles off the coast of Libya in an operation coordinated by the
Italian coast guard, ANSA sources said.
The operation saved 108 people, including five women, from
the dinghy that was headed towards Italy.
More than 20 people are probably missing as survivors said
between 130 and 140 were aboard the dinghy that set off from the
Libyan port of Zabratah.
They were saved by the Aquarius ship of the SOS
Mediterranee NGO, which docked at the Italian island of
Lampedusa on Monday.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said reports of
another in a long series of migrant-boat disasters in the
southern Mediterranean should stir profound reflection and
debate.
"There is truly a need to think," Mattarella said at a
ceremony for the presentation of the candidates for Italy's
David di Donatello film awards.
"And the umpteenth tragedy in the Mediterranean today
reminds us of this".
Gentiloni said the disaster showed the need to discuss
Italy's proposal for a new migration compact for the European
Union.
"It's an extra reason to discuss the migration compact
prepared by Italy," Gentiloni said.
The minister pointed out that the disaster comes a year
after a wreck off the Libya coast in which around 800 people
died.
"The symbolic fact that it has happened a year after, even
if in a completely different area, must touch our conscience and
make us think".
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