AT least two people have died and more than 30 are believed to be missing after two ships carrying migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The two boats reportedly left from the Tunisian port city of Sfax carrying 48 and 42 people, respectively.
Italian coastguards said they had recovered the bodies of an Ivory Coast woman and her one-year-old baby.
Separately, Tunisian officials said they found the bodies of 10 migrants on a beach near Sfax.
The 10 people were found between Friday and Saturday during a windstorm that may have sunken their boat, the official told AFP news agency.
Tunisian authorities say the port city is a popular gateway for migrants seeking a better life.
Officials in Sfax – which is only about 80 miles (130km) from Italy’s Lampedusa island – said they were working to identify the nationalities of the migrants, but they mostly came from sub-Saharan African countries.
Italian authorities said they were investigating the incidents.
Italy’s coastguard said it had rescued 57 migrants when the vessels sank on Saturday, about 23 nautical miles (46 km) south-west of Lampedusa.
Earlier, the UN’s migration agency, the International Organization for Migration, said more than 30 people had been reported missing.
The tragedies follows June’s Greek boat disaster which left at least 78 dead and hundreds missing.
On Sunday, firefighters and mountain rescue teams were preparing to rescue 20 migrants trapped on a rocky part of Lampedusa’s coastline.
The migrants have been there since late Friday after strong winds pushed the boats against the rocks.
After more than two days of sailing in bad weather, NGO Open Arms said it had started disembarking 195 rescued migrants in the southern Italian port of Brindisi.
