Sad state of the plight of immigrants.........

At least 94 people, including a pregnant woman and two children, died when a boat capsized and caught fire off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard said on Thursday.

The coast guard has been able to save at least 151 people, and the rescue operation is ongoing.

The boat is thought to have been carrying up to 500 people. Those aboard include Eritreans, Somalis and Ghanaians, the coast guard said, and the boat is thought to have launched from Libya's coast.

Forecasters said there were some gusting winds and showers Thursday morning in the region but no weather conditions significant enough to be likely to sink a boat. Lampedusa, the closest Italian island to Africa, has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to enter European Union countries.

According to Italian media reports, the vessel sank near Rabbit Beach, recently voted one of the best beaches in the world by Trip Advisor. The head of the U.N. refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, praised the efforts of the Italian coast guard but said he was "dismayed at the rising global phenomenon of migrants and people fleeing conflict or persecution and perishing at sea."

Another 13 men drowned off Italy's southern coast Monday when they attempted to swim ashore, the U.N agency said in a statement. It is working with countries in the region to find "effective alternatives" so people don't risk their lives trying to make perilous journeys by sea, it said.

 

Last week, the Italian coast guard rescued a ship bound for Lampedusa from Tunisia that had 398 Syrian refugees on board. There is generally a spike in migrants coming to the island -- which has 6,000 full-time residents -- in the summer because the seas are calmer. Migrants said they typically spent a day or two at sea in boats that are barely seaworthy.

Those who arrive generally have no papers and seek asylum in Italy. They spend anywhere from a day to a week on Lampedusa before moving to another city on the mainland. At the detention center where they first take the migrants, the coast guard said, they had 1,250 migrants in a space designed for 250. A Navy doctor said that typically those who arrive are treated for dehydration, sun exposure, and gasoline burns, because they're so packed into the boats the fuel splashes and burns the skin.