Refugees killed as boat capsizes off Italian island

Italian coastguards were trying to rescue migrants lost at sea today after their boat capsized off the coast of Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island close to North Africa, officials said, but many were feared dead.

Seamen have so far saved 48 out of 200 people believed to have been aboard the boat, said Pietro Carosia of the Italian Coast Guard.

Helicopters have spotted a number of corpses in the sea, Mr Carosia said, declining to provide a number.

The ANSA news agency said about 20 bodies had been spotted so far.

The rescue operation was hampered by strong winds and rough waters, ANSA added.

Thousands of people – mostly Tunisians – have arrived from North Africa on Italy’s shores in recent weeks, fleeing the turmoil that has engulfed the region.

Italy and Tunisia have struck a deal to limit the numbers of Tunisians heading to Italian shores, with Rome agreeing to give short-term residency papers to 20,000 illegal migrants but intent on deporting new arrivals.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told reporters that the measures would allow Italy “to turn off the tap” on illegal immigration.

Mr Maroni, a key member of the anti-immigrant Northern League ally in premier Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition, spoke in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, after wrapping up two days of talks to nail down an agreement.

Under the accord, Mr Maroni said Italy would supply Tunisia’s security forces with the “assistance and means”, to stop the flourishing smuggling rings which have seen thousands cram into fragile fishing boats for the night-time crossing to Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island close to Tunisia’s coast.

Most of the migrants – who pay as much as $1,400 (€978) for the journey, convinced it will bring them a better life – say they aim to eventually reach France or another European country to find jobs or family and do not intend staying in Italy.

Sky TG 24 TV, reporting from Tunis, said Mr Berlusconi’s cabinet today will approve a decree allowing the 20,000 Tunisians already in Italy to receive residence permits good for six months.

Some in Mr Berlusconi’s government has been pushing for such permits, arguing that once Tunisians get them, they can use the document to cross the border into France under provisions of Europe’s Schengen visa-free treaty. French police have rebuffed hundreds of Tunisians in recent days at the border with Italy.

Many of the Tunisians at the French border had fled from holding camps Italy set up on the mainland to contain migrants transferred from Lampedusa, which had run out of space and shelter.