Dozens of migrants feared dead at sea in fresh migrant wreckage

Dozens of African migrants attempting the crossing to Italy drowned at sea south off Sicily island, survivors who were taken to the Sicilian coast said on Tuesday.

According to witnesses quoted by NGO Save the Children, the deadly accident took place shortly after two migrant boats were rescued by Italian naval forces.

"They said there were two boats, of which one had an unclear problem. As a result, many people fell at sea, but they were unable to swim," Giovanna Di Benedetto, spokeswoman of Save the Children, told Rai State television.

According to first reconstructions, there could be up to 40 victims in the fresh disaster, only the latest in a series of similar episodes that saw some 3,500 migrants lose their lives in the attempt to cross the Mediterranean last year, according to the Refugee Agency of the United Nations (UNHCR).

The survivors were part of a group of nearly 200 migrants who were taken to Sicily early on Tuesday by the container ship Zeran, which also transported the corpses of five recovered victims.

In an unprecedented wreckage occurred last month, as many as around 800 people were feared to have drowned after their packed boat capsized in international waters south of Sicily.

The countless arrivals have continued in the past few days, with thousands of migrants rescued south of Sicily, according to the Italian navy.

During one of the rescue operations, a Nigerian woman reportedly gave birth to a baby girl after she was rescued by an Italian navy vessel equipped with a midwife who assisted the new mother for hours.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Tuesday called on Italian regions to find new locations with up to 9,000 beds at disposal of the newly arrived migrants, all but Sicily whose refugee centers are on their last legs.

Meanwhile, around 150 migrants who arrived in the Eastern port of Augusta in Sicily on Monday were put into isolation as a preventative measure to stop contagion as they were suspected of having varicella or scabies, ANSA news agency reported.

"It is not possible to go on like this. Italy is paying the bill of the Libyan situation," Alfano was quoted as saying by local media. "There is the need of focused actions in Libya, in the framework of international legality," he said.

According to local experts, the political unrest in some Northern African countries, most notably Libya, has produced opportunities for people traffickers, who take advantage of rampant instability in many African countries to make business out of migrants' despair.

Before leaving Libya, the migrants often suffer a heavy toll of violence, according to Italian authorities which have arrested more than 1,000 people traffickers so far.

Following Italy's repeated appeals on the migrant emergency, European leaders in a recent extraordinary summit have agreed to reinforce the joint operations in the Mediterranean by increasing the financial resources. Endit