Death toll up to 211 after boat sinks off Italy

At least 211 people were killed as of Monday when a boat carrying as many as 500 illegal migrants capsized off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday. The search for missing people from last week's migrant-boat wreck near Lampedusa resumed on Monday, after 2 days of failure to start the rescue efforts following Thursday's tragic accident. Divers recovered 83 bodies in difficult conditions on Sunday within the first nine hours as the initial step of the efforts, taking the death toll up to 194. As for the ongoing rescue efforts on Monday, teams have recovered 17 bodies until now from the shipwreck and the death toll has reached 211. Divers from the rescue team described the crime scene in the region, or the wreck in some 47 metres deep in the sea, as horrific. The sinking boat is believed to have been carrying 518 mostly Eritreans and Somalis when it went down, which means that 169 people are still missing, as only 155 survived the disaster. Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge visited the island on Sunday, renewing calls for reform of Italy's tough immigration law, which makes being an undocumented migrant a criminal offence. Meanwhile, the refugeee influx to Italy has been on the rise as in the early hours of Monday a new group of refugees have landed on the Sicily Island, a total of 201 illegal immigrants including 26 men, several women, children and two new-borns, and a boat carrying 155 Syrians have reached the Sicilian coast.