:Forty-one migrants including three children are feared dead after being shipwrecked last week in the Mediterranean, UN agencies said, citing four survivors brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa Wednesday. Their metal boat overturned in bad weather during the night of Thursday to Friday after setting off from the Tunisian port of Sfax, said a joint statement from the UN agencies for refugees, children and migration. The survivors — a 13-year-old boy on his own, a woman and two men — drifted for days before being rescued by a merchant ship on Tuesday, they said. They were finally brought to Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard on Wednesday. In a separate statement, the Italian Red Cross, which manages the migrant reception centre on the island, said the four were generally in good health. They reported to be from Ivory Coast and Guinea, and were unrelated to the missing migrants, it said. The Sfax prosecutor’s office said it was opening an investigation into “anyone” who helped the migrants “illegally cross maritime borders” into Tunisia, causing their deaths. The shipwreck is one of several deadly incidents reported in recent days after a period of bad weather. Officials on Monday had reported that 16 migrants had died in shipwrecks off the coasts of Tunisia and Western Sahara. And on Sunday, the UN’s migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said at least 30 people were missing after two shipwrecks off Lampedusa. The tiny island, located just 90 miles (around 145 kilometres) from Tunisia, is the first port of call for many migrants heading from North Africa to Europe. But many of them do not survive, making the Central Mediterranean migrant crossing the world’s deadliest. More than 1,800 people died attempting the route so far this year, according to IOM figures from Friday — more than double the fatalities in the same period last year.
