Rome: Italian coast guards found 25 dead bodies in the hold of a Libyan refugee boat crammed with 271 passengers that arrived on the southern island of Lampedusa today, local port authorities said.
It was not immediately clear how the refugees - all young men - had died. Asphyxiation due to crowded conditions was a possible cause.
The corpses were discovered when the refugees were moved from their boat onto a coast guard vessel. They are now in a morgue on the island.
Of the 271 refugees found alive, 36 were women and 21 children. Coast guard officials had earlier said that the number of refugees was 268.
Thousands of refugees fleeing Libya, most of them migrant workers from other parts of Africa, have arrived on tiny Lampedusa in recent weeks.
Hundreds have drowned in a series of accidents, usually in storms at sea. Rickety fishing boats are often the vessels used for crossings from Libya.
The journey from North Africa takes around two days.
It was not immediately clear how the refugees - all young men - had died. Asphyxiation due to crowded conditions was a possible cause.
The corpses were discovered when the refugees were moved from their boat onto a coast guard vessel. They are now in a morgue on the island.
Of the 271 refugees found alive, 36 were women and 21 children. Coast guard officials had earlier said that the number of refugees was 268.
Thousands of refugees fleeing Libya, most of them migrant workers from other parts of Africa, have arrived on tiny Lampedusa in recent weeks.
Hundreds have drowned in a series of accidents, usually in storms at sea. Rickety fishing boats are often the vessels used for crossings from Libya.
The journey from North Africa takes around two days.
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