A coastal patrol discovered on Sunday the bodies of 11 African immigrants aboard a small boat off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, a coastguard official said.

The official said a further 14 illegal immigrants, all believed to be Somalis seeking a better life in Europe, were picked up alive from the boat and were being brought to Lampedusa by a coastguard launch.

It was the second tragedy involving illegal immigrants off Lampedusa in the last three days. On Friday, seven Africans, including three children, died before their boat could reach the tiny, Mediterranean island. A further 25 people survived.

"Help us. We are facing a real emergency. We don't even have enough coffins on the island," the mayor of Lampedusa, Bruno Siragusa, was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency on Sunday.

"We know that the 14 immigrants who are coming here have been exhausted by hunger and cold," he added.

The director of a reception center for immigrants on Lampedusa said that coastguards were alerted to the latest tragedy at around 8:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. EDT) on Sunday and dispatched two of their motor launches to the scene.

"We have been told that there are 11 dead," said Claudio Scalia. "It seems that those on board were from Somalia. Their boat almost certainly set sail from the Tunisian-Libyan border area," he added, speaking by telephone.

It was not yet clear how or why the immigrants died, but Scalia said the seas off Libya had been very rough in recent days and that this bad weather might have played a part in both incidents, preventing the boats from making a quick crossing.

Immigration on the rise

The coastguard official, speaking at operational headquarters on the island of Sicily, said the immigrants' boat was sighted some 54 nautical miles southeast of Lampedusa.

It was being towed to Lampedusa with the bodies still aboard, he said.

Illegal immigration to Italy has risen in recent months, after a long lull, with most of the migrants coming from impoverished north and central African states.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has enacted tough legislation to crack down on both illegal immigrants and on the people-traders who charge hundreds of euros (dollars) to deliver them to Italy's porous shoreline.

Police said at the weekend that they had arrested the man who was believed to have piloted Friday's boat and charged him with manslaughter and aiding illegal immigration.

Survivors told coastguard officials the bodies of three babies who had died of hunger and exhaustion during the voyage were flung overboard. Four adults were believed to have drowned after the boat capsized when rescuers neared it.

Some of the survivors said they paid 1,200 euros a head for safe passage to Italy.

(China Daily October 20, 2003)