The victims include a girl estimated to be aged between four and eight.
The Italian Coast Guard managed to save 22 people in an operation in the Maltese search-and-rescue zone.
The survivors and bodies of the victims were taken to Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island and the destination migrant-boats from North Africa frequently head towards.
Six of the survivors are in hospital.
Rough sea conditions, with waves over two metres high, are complicating the search for the missing people, the Coast Guard said Thursday.
The boat was carrying 46 people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and the Ivory Coast.
It departed from Sfax in Tunisia on Sunday.
ANSA
