At least 23 Somali nationals have died after two boats carrying illegal immigrants sank off the coast of Lampedusa in Italy.
Italian coastguard rescue teams managed to rescue 15 people, Somalia’s ambassador to Italy, Ibrahim Omar Sheegow, said on Wednesday.
The ambassador confirmed that the two boats were heading to Italy when a technical fault caused them to sink.
He urged young Somalis not to risk their lives, but to invest in local job opportunities instead of engaging in illegal immigration.
Sheegow called on Italian security agencies to crack down on smuggling networks to save young Somalis.
The IOM has reported that nearly 24,500 people have gone missing or died in the Mediterranean since 2014, making the journey from Africa to Europe.
The incident is part of a growing pattern of deaths in the Mediterranean. This year, some 675 people have died at sea.
The deadliest incident off Lampedusa was on 3 October 2013, when a boat carrying more than 500 migrants (from Eritrea, Somalia, Ghana) sank, killing at least 368 people.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has indicated that the fight against illegal immigration needs to be built on prevention and effective management, rather than just delivering on incidents like this.
