ROME: Italy’s coast guard said on Sunday it had recovered two bodies and rescued 57 people off the southern island of Lampedusa, amid reports that more than 30 people were missing following two shipwrecks.
The Ansa news agency, citing survivors’ accounts, reported that two migrant boats that had set off from the port of Sfax, a hotspot for Tunisia’s migration crisis, had sunk on Saturday on their way to Europe.
One was carrying 48 people, the second 42, Ansa said, adding that the coast guard found the survivors about 23 nautical miles (46 km) south-west of Lampedusa, as well as the two victims — a woman from Ivory Coast and her one-year-old child.
A coast guard spokesperson said he could only confirm the number of survivors and the recovery of two bodies.
More than 2,000 people have arrived in Lampedusa in the last few days after being rescued at sea by Italian patrol boats and NGO groups, as strong winds further complicate the situation around the island.
About 20 migrants have been stuck since Friday on a cliff after their boat crashed against rocks upon arrival in Lampedusa, with the coast guard unable to reach them via sea or helicopter, local media said.
On Sunday, NGO group Open Arms wrote on social media X that it had finally begun disembarking 195 rescued sea migrants in the southern Italian port of Brindisi after more than two days of sailing in rough seas.
Italy’s right-wing government has adopted a policy of assigning far-away ports to charity ships, rather than letting them disembark rescued migrants in nearer Lampedusa or Sicily, with the aim of spreading arrivals across the country.
NGOs complain that this increases their navigation costs, prolongs the misery of survivors, and reduces the amount of time charity ships can patrol the areas of the Mediterranean where shipwrecks are more common.
Italy is experiencing a sharp surge in sea migration, with almost 92,000 arrivals recorded far this year, according to interior ministry data last updated on Friday, compared to more than 42,600 in the same period in 2022.
Two dead, 57 rescued from migrant shipwrecks off Italy’s Lampedusa
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Two dead, 57 rescued from migrant shipwrecks off Italy’s Lampedusa
- Ansa said the coastguard rescued 43 people and recovered the body of what appeared to be a minor following the accident
- Survivors told authorities a total of 46 people had embarked in the journey
UNICEF warns of rise in sexual deepfakes of children
- The findings underscored the use of “nudification” tools, which digitally alter or remove clothing to create sexualized images
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN children’s agency on Wednesday highlighted a rapid rise in the use of artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit images of children, warning of real harm to young victims caused by the deepfakes.
According to a UNICEF-led investigation in 11 countries, at least 1.2 million children said their images were manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes — in some countries at a rate equivalent to “one child in a typical classroom” of 25 students.
The findings underscored the use of “nudification” tools, which digitally alter or remove clothing to create sexualized images.
“We must be clear. Sexualized images of children generated or manipulated using AI tools are child sexual abuse material,” UNICEF said in a statement.
“Deepfake abuse is abuse, and there is nothing fake about the harm it causes.”
The agency criticized AI developers for creating tools without proper safeguards.
“The risks can be compounded when generative AI tools are embedded directly into social media platforms where manipulated images spread rapidly,” UNICEF said.
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has been hit with bans and investigations in several countries for allowing users to create and share sexualized pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.
UNICEF’s study found that children are increasingly aware of deepfakes.
“In some of the study countries, up to two-thirds of children said they worry that AI could be used to create fake sexual images or videos. Levels of concern vary widely between countries, underscoring the urgent need for stronger awareness, prevention, and protection measures,” the agency said.
UNICEF urged “robust guardrails” for AI chatbots, as well as moves by digital companies to prevent the circulation of deepfakes, not just the removal of offending images after they have already been shared.
Legislation is also needed across all countries to expand definitions of child sexual abuse material to include AI-generated imagery, it said.
The countries included in the study were Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Serbia, and Tunisia.
