Thirty people are missing and 17 were rescued in the central Mediterranean on Sunday after the boat in which they were travelling from Libya capsized in bad weather, Italy's coastguard said.
The tragedy comes just weeks after a February 26 shipwreck near the southern region of Calabria, in which at least 79 died.
However, Italy's coastguard said the capsizing occurred outside the Italian Search and Rescue area , and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Rome was doing all it could to avoid shipwrecks. Rescue operations were ongoing late on Sunday, supported by merchant ships and aerial support by the EU's border agency Frontex, while two further merchant vessels were en route to the area, the coastguard said in a statement.Earlier on Sunday, the Mediterranea Saving Humans charity had tweeted that according to several sources, the vessel, travelling in the direction of Italy, had capsized about 110 miles northwest of Benghazi.
Rome's ability to rescue migrants at sea has come under scrutiny following last month's shipwreck and the issue is piling pressure on the right-wing government which took office last October promising to curb the influx of migrants.
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