ROME, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Up to 40 migrants are believed to have died after their boat capsized in rough seas in the central Mediterranean, while another 10 were rescued, Italian authorities and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.

The ten survivors, including four women, were taken to the tiny island of Lampedusa in the early hours of the morning, and assisted by the Red Cross, according to the Italian coastguard.

The boat involved in the shipwreck was an inflatable rubber dinghy that had left the port of Sfax, Tunisia, on Monday with at least 56 people on board, a representative of UNHCR-Italy said on social media. The passengers were reportedly from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea.

The coastguard also recovered the bodies of ten people who drowned after the shipwreck, and brought them ashore.

Rescue operations for the other missing people were still underway on Wednesday, involving aircraft provided by Italy's coastguard, police, and army, as well as the European Union's border agency Frontex. Rescuers would "take turns flying over the area to the particularly adverse weather conditions," the coast guard warned.

The central Mediterranean is a key route for people seeking to reach Europe in search of a better life or safety, and one of the deadliest as well. At least 27,016 migrants and refugees have reached southern European countries so far in 2025, and more than 25,900 of them made it by sea from northern African countries.

Of these, some 8,936 people have arrived in Italy (up to March 19), compared to 8,630 in the same period last year, according to the Italian Interior Ministry.

At the same time, the UNHCR said at least 214 people have died or gone missing during the dangerous crossing. Looking at UNHCR data from 2013 to 2024, the number of dead and missing exceeds 30,600. Enditem

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