17 immigrants die as ship capsizes

A ship carrying dozens of illegal immigrants capsized off Tunisia, killing at least 17 people. Another 47 were reported missing.

Rescue teams saved at least 11 people but many more were feared to have drowned, the state TAP news agency said

The ship was sailing to Italy with 70 Moroccans and five Tunisians on board when it sank an hour after leaving Chott Meriem, 93 miles south-east of the Tunisian capital, Tunis.

Tunisian newspapers said the ship apparently sank late Saturday or early Sunday.

Italy, meanwhile, planned to repatriate more illegal immigrants today, after hundreds of people arrived over the weekend on a tiny island off the coast of Sicily.

The immigrants would be sent back on C-130 military planes, said Michele Miosi, a coast guard official in Lampedusa, an island closer to Africa than to Italy.

Miosi declined to disclose the number of people who would be repatriated, but reports said at least 360 would be sent back to Libya later in the day.

On Sunday, more than 1,200 migrants were held in the detention centre in Lampedusa. A few hundred were flown back to Libya, where most of the illegal immigrants reaching Italian shores every year depart from.

Immigrant arrivals have increased recently, helped by calm seas and mild early autumn night temperatures.

“Sending back illegal immigrants by plane is a method we’ll increasingly use. It is useful to discourage the departure of illegal immigrants to Italy,” said Interior Under-secretary Alfredo Mantovano. “If they know they will be sent back maybe they won’t leave.”

Authorities have said they expected a rush of new arrivals ahead of a joint crackdown by Italy and Libya. Italy has pledged to provide Libya with training and equipment to spot and stop the boats from heading out to sea.

Relatively few of the thousands who try to slip into Italy by boat each year intend to stay in the country. Most hope to travel further north, to other European Union countries with larger immigrant populations.