The unseen summer carnage of migrants perishing at sea trying to get to Europe continues.
Since Friday good weather and calm seas has seen a jump in the number of unseaworthy craft, mostly setting off from Libya, trying to cross the Mediterranean.
A small boat with 18 bodies inside it was found off the island of Lampedusa this morning by Italian coastguards, and later on a naval ship docked with 1,373 migrants on board. They had been rescued in six separate operations. Many were in a poor state of dehydration and hunger, and one dead body was discovered in one of the boats, apparently killed in an argument with a smuggler.
In all since Friday the Italians have saved 3,500 people, but it is unknown how many more may have slipped beneath the waves before help could come. Off the Libyan coast the search continues for survivors from a boat which capsized yesterday. The handful of rescued survivors say it could have had as many as 250 people on board.
