Ten women died Thursday in a new migrant boat accident in the Mediterranean, Italian authorities said as they began the grisly evacuation of hundreds of corp-ses from a salvaged wreck. The latest tragedy occurred when a rubber dinghy packed with African migr-ants began taking on water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.
An Italian Coast Guard patrol boat, the Diciotti, went to its aid and was able to rescue 107 people (74 men, 34 women and two children) despite a 30-knot wind and a swell generating two-metre waves.
The rescuers found ten corpses in the bottom of the partially-submerged dinghy, all of them women. It did not appear that there had been any other casualties, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
A total of 116 people were safely picked up in a separate operation in waters between Sicily and Libya on Thursday. The Coast Guard said they did not expect more departures following a change in the weather.
More than 64,000 people have landed at Italian ports since the start of 2016, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, according to a tally by the UN refugee agency which does not include the latest arrivals. Some 10,000 would-be emigrants to Europe have died in the Meditteranean since the cr-isis erupted in 2013.
