At least 30 bodies were found on a migrant boat rescued between Sicily and north African coast, Italian navy said.
The discovery was made during a rescue operation Sunday afternoon as part of Italy's 'Mare Nostrum' (Our Sea) operation, reports The Guardian. The operation's objective is to catch migrant vessels before they run into trouble. The mission was launched after two disasters in October that resulted in the death of around 400 people.
Rescuers boarded a fishing boat carrying around 590 refugees and migrants to evacuate those in distress including two pregnant women. Officials said the immigrants died of asphyxiation, according to RTE. The boat was pulled by the Italian navy and will arrive Monday in Pozzallo on the southeast coast of Sicily.
Officials have previously discovered boats containing dead bodies of migrants. However, this discovery was the first to have found large numbers of bodies, states Sky NEWS. More than 1,600 migrants were rescued by Italians officials raising this year's toll to at least 60,000.
Italy has mostly seen migrants being perilously crossing from North Africa to Europe. According to European Union border agency, Frontex, there has been a significant rise in numbers lately.
Italy made repeated requests to the European Union countries to join Mare Nostrum, Europe's biggest ever search-and-rescue mission. However, only Slovenia offered one ship for two months late last year.
According to Al Jazeera, in the past few weeks a series of tragedies were witnessed with 10 people drowned and 39 rescued following sinking of boat in the Libyan coast earlier in June.
