A ship brought 143 survivors, mostly Syrians, from a capsized smugglers’ boat to Malta today.

Divers began the recovery of dozens of migrants’ bodies yesterday from a boat that sank last week off the coast of Sicily in one of the worst such disasters to hit people fleeing violence, poverty and oppression in Africa.

An Italian government minister born in Africa watched wordlessly today as soldiers wearing face masks carried body bags containing migrants from her continent who perished when a fishing boat sank within sight of the tiny island of Lampedusa.