Italian and Maltese naval vessels have recovered 34 bodies and rescued 206 people from a migrant boat which capsized on Friday.


The boat carrying around 250 migrants capsized and spilled them into the sea between Sicily and Tunisia, the second such tragedy in a little over a week.


In the early hours of Saturday, the bodies of those drowned in the tragedy were brought to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, while some of survivors in need of medical attention were taken to a local hospital for treatment.



According to the Italian Marina Militare, most of those dead are believed to be women and children.


Also arriving overnight on the island were a number of migrants who had been rescued from a different vessel in the area, a clear indication that the flow of migrants trying to cross the sea in hope of a better life has far from diminished.


Friday's disaster came just over a week after at least 339 people drowned when a boat sank less than a kilometre from the tiny island between Sicily and Tunisia, which has become the focal point of a growing migrant crisis in southern Europe.




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