Italy’s Coast Guard rescues dozens from migrant shipwrecks; survivors say 31 missing

 Italy’s Coast Guard rescued 57 migrants from two boats that capsized during night in rough seas south of a tiny Italian island and recovered two bodies, authorities said.

In a statement, coast guard quotes survivors as saying some 30 migrants were missing and it recovered body of a boy and a woman from one of capsized vessels.

Some 20 ors were stranded Sunday on rocks after a third shipwreck.

According to those who were rescued from shipwrecked vessels late Saturday, some 23 nautical miles (42.5 kilometers) southwest of Lampedusa, 28 people were missing from one and three from or.

Meanwhile, 20 migrants were clinging desperately to jagged rocks of a tall reef off Lampedusa since early Saturday after a third boat crashed into craggy outcropping west of island's lighthouse. Strong winds and powerful waves me any Coast Guard rescue too dangerous.

coast guard office in Palermo requested help of a Sicily-based Alpine and Cave Rescue group, which flew two experts aboard an Italian air force helicopter. experts were planning to rescue stranded migrants using helicopter, mountaineering group said.

Earlier, Italian helicopters dropped food and water down to migrants, Italian state TV reported.

So many have me crossing in smugglers' unseaworthy boats launched from Libya and Tunisia in recent days that 2,450 migrants were currently housed at Lampedusa's temporary residence, which has a capacity of about 400, said Ignazio Schintu, an official of Italian Red Cross which runs center. Once winds slacken and seas turn calm, Italy will resume ferrying hundreds of m to Sicily to ease overcrowding, he told state TV.

two boats that capsized in open seas were believed to have set out from Sfax — a Tunisian port — on Thursday, when sea conditions were good, according to authorities.

But since sea conditions were forecast to turn b on Saturday, "it's even more criminal for smugglers to let m leave,'' said Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson from U.N. migration agency IOM.

Before Saturday, a total of 1,814 migrants were known to have perished while attempting Mediterranean crossing to Italy in boats launched from Tunisia or Libya, he said.

Libyan departures used to be riskier, he said, but because lately Tunisia-based smugglers have been using particularly flimsy vessels, that route is becoming increasingly delier.

Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are setting out from Tunisia in "fragile iron vessels that after 24 hours often break in two, and migrants fall into sea,'' Di Giacomo said, in an audio message from Sicily.