The Coast Guard rescued 57 migrants, 47 men and 10 women, from the water and recovered two bodies, those of a woman and a child aged about 18 months, both Ivorians.

Their bodies have been taken to the mortuary at the island’s Cala Pisana cemetery.

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) cultural mediations spoke to the survivors who reported that two boats had sunk.

The first is said to have had 48 people on board, 45 of whom were saved with three unaccounted for.

It is said to have gone down a few hours before the Coast Guard found the survivors some 37 kilometres south-east of Lampedusa.

The second was carrying 42 people from Sub-Saharan African, 14 of whom were picked up. Both boats are said to have departed from Sfax in Tunisia.

The survivors were worn out by the experience, the Red Cross said on Sunday.

“They were drained from the shipwrecks when they arrived,” Ignazio Schintu, the Deputy Secretary General of the Italian Red Cross (CRI), which runs Lampedusa’s migrant hotspot, said.

“After the treatment and assistance of the CRI operators they are better, apart from their psychological condition, which we are addressing.”

CRI President Rosario Valastro expressed dismay at “more tragic news regarding the lives of people who take on long sea crossings in prohibitive conditions”.

Meanwhile, an operation to rescue 34 other migrants who had been stranded on the Capo Ponente rocks, on Lampedusa, for 36 hours after the boat they were aboard crashed into them on Friday night, was successfully completed on Sunday.

All of the migrants are safe.

Three of the six women in the group were taken to the island’s health clinic, although none are in a serious condition, sources said.

Rough conditions in the Strait of Sicily and strong winds and choppy seas south of Lampedusa have hit attempted migrant crossings very hard and hampered rescue operations in recent days (Photo: ANSA)

The rescue operation was difficult because of the strong winds and choppy seas that prevented the Coast Guard from rescuing them via sea.

Instead, the Air Force and Fire Brigade were called in to lift the migrants off the rocks using helicopters.

The migrants said they were from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria.

They said their boat departed from Sfax, in Tunisia, on Thursday night.

Lampedusa’s hotspot was packed with 2412 people early on Sunday after the arrival of the 57 survivors from the two shipwrecks.

The official capacity is around 400.

None of the migrants are set to be transferred to the mainland via sea on Sunday due to the rough conditions in the Strait of Sicily.

The Agrigento prefect’s department has ordered that 360 of the migrants be transferred via charter flights on Monday and Tuesday.

ANSA