According to the Red Crescent, at least 43 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off the Tunisian coast.
They tried to get from Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy and thus to the European Union, the aid organization announced on Saturday.
84 people were saved.
The boat started in Suwara on the northwest coast of Libya.
On board were people from Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Bangladesh.
The Italian island of Lampedusa is often the destination for migrants who try to get from Africa to Europe via the dangerous sea route in small, often overcrowded and hardly seaworthy boats.
It was only at the beginning of June that more than 20 migrants from Africa were killed in a shipwreck off the Tunisian coast.
They too wanted to go to Italy.
Inspectors inspected the ship for several hours
The authorities in Sicily have arrested the rescue ship Geo Barents of the organization "Doctors Without Borders". On Friday, inspectors in the port city of Augusta inspected the ship for several hours, Médecins Sans Frontières announced on Saturday. The Geo Barents are now being held for defects. According to “Doctors Without Borders”, the authorities' aim behind the controls is to act in a discriminatory manner against ships operated by private aid organizations.
Time and again the Italian authorities detain ships belonging to private sea rescuers.
The Sea-Eye 4 and Sea-Watch 4 are currently affected. According to a Sea-Watch spokeswoman, the most recently set Sea-Watch 3 received approval to sail to its Spanish home port of Burriana in order to remedy deficiencies.
Often the authorities complain about their equipment or that they are categorized in the wrong class for their missions.
More than 20,000 migrants reached Italy in 2021
From Libya and Tunisia, migrants make their way to Italy again and again. Many get into distress at sea and have to hope for the help of ships such as those of private organizations. Italy's Ministry of the Interior counted significantly more migrants this year who reached the coast of the Mediterranean country in boats. In 2021, as of Friday, almost 21,000 people arrived, compared to around 7,300 in the same period of the previous year. According to the United Nations, around 720 migrants died in the central Mediterranean this year.