The Italian coastguard reported Monday that it is feared that more than 20 people drowned in three separate shipwrecks within a 24-hour period due to favourable weather conditions that encouraged new attempts at the risky sea crossing from Africa.
A coastguard statement said that 20 of the passengers on one boat that went down in the search and rescue area off the coast of Malta reported to authorities that they were missing.
A different shipwreck in Italian waters, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the island of Lampedusa, had earlier led to the missing persons report of three people.
A third boat that sank in the waters off Malta later yielded a body.
1,200 people were saved and brought to Lampedusa after all three boats were seized by Italian authorities on Sunday night and Monday, according to the coastguard.
“During last night and up until now, 35 boats have been rescued from the Tunisian route alone,” it said, adding that around 20 more vessels remained at sea.
Tunisia, with a coastline less than 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Lampedusa, is a favoured stepping stone for migrants attempting the Mediterranean crossing.
The flow of African migrants has intensified since President Kais Saied made a fiery speech on February 21 claiming illegal immigration was a demographic threat to Tunisia.
The North African country is in the grip of a long, worsening economic crisis that has pushed many of its citizens to take desperate measures in search of better lives abroad.
Chiara Cardoletti, the UN refugee agency representative for Italy, had confirmed the numbers missing at sea, offering condolences to their families.
On Twitter, she called for urgent action to “stabilise the situation in Tunisia, to reduce the reasons that drive so many people to risk their lives at sea”.
Survivors of the shipwreck in which 20 people were feared drowned said six minors had been aboard their seven-metre-long boat, which was rescued by a fishing vessel, the Repubblica daily reported.
Those saved hailed from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Sudan, and had paid between 500 and 600 euros ($650) for the crossing, the Stampa daily said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s new hard-right government took office in October promising to stop the boat landings.
But the numbers of people crossing the central Mediterranean have soared in recent months.
Over 36,000 people have arrived by sea in Italy this year, compared to some 9,000 in the same period last year, according to the Italian interior ministry.
Lampedusa is the first landing point for many new arrivals, but its migrant centre, built for under 400 people, is regularly overwhelmed.
The International Organization for Migration has recorded 537 deaths or disappearances in the central Mediterranean – the world’s most dangerous crossing – so far this year.