The bodies of 19 people have been recovered from an inflatable boat south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, a spokesperson for the Italian coastguard told AFP. During the rescue operation in the early hours of Wednesday, 58 other people, including five children, were found alive and transported to Lampedusa by the coastguard.

Lampedusa's mayor, Filippo Mannino, stated that seven people, including two children, are being treated in hospital for "hypothermia and intoxication from hydrocarbon fumes." The coastguard rescue took place approximately 85 miles off the Italian island within Libyan search and rescue waters.

Roberto D’Arrigo, the coastguard spokesperson, noted that the boat was spotted by an Italian reconnaissance plane on Tuesday, but there were no Libyan coastguard or civilian ships in the area to assist. A decision was subsequently made to dispatch an Italian coastguard vessel from Lampedusa.

D’Arrigo suggested that some of the individuals may have died while being transported back to Lampedusa in particularly rough weather conditions, with waves reaching up to seven meters high. Lampedusa serves as a key landing point for people crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, and many perish during this perilous journey.

According to the UN's International Organisation for Migration, 624 people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean so far this year. The last humanitarian disaster on Lampedusa occurred in August, when 27 people died in two shipwrecks off the coast. The Italian interior ministry reports that 6,117 migrants have landed on Italy's shores since the beginning of the year.

Source: www.theguardian.com