<div><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">About 30 migrants were missing and presumed drowned after the overcrowded boat they were on capsized during a rescue attempt by a cargo ship off Libya, Italy's coastguard said on Sunday.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>Seventeen migrants were saved and a search was underway for the missing after the early-morning attempted rescue in Libya's search-and-rescue zone, the coastguard said.</div><div><br></div><div>"During the rescue operations... the boat capsized during the transfer of the migrants: 17 people were rescued and recovered by the (cargo) vessel while approximately 30 migrants were missing," said the coastguard.</div><div><br></div><div>The latest disaster in the Mediterranean comes exactly two weeks after a shipwreck off Italy's southern coast of Calabria that killed at least 76 migrants, with bodies continuing to wash ashore nearly daily.</div><div><br></div><div>That shipwreck has put Italy's right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the defensive as it tries to fend off sharp criticism that it failed to intervene in time to save the migrants.</div><div><br></div><div>Sunday's botched rescue is sure to increase finger-pointing over who is to blame for deaths even as an increasing number of migrants embark on the perilous Central Mediterranean crossing headed for Italy's shores.</div><div><br></div><div>Italy's coastguard said the boat in distress was in Libya's search-and-rescue zone, and that the deadly episode laid bare "the inactivity" of other countries in the Mediterranean.</div><div><br></div><div>Rome has long complained to its EU partners that it bears the brunt of the tens of thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe by boat each year.</div><div><br></div><div>First to be alerted to the boat in distress some 100 miles (160 kilometres) northwest of Benghazi was Alarm Phone, a charity that monitors migrant boats. It said it then alerted Italian authorities at 0118 GMT Saturday morning.</div><div><br></div><div>A surveillance plane of German NGO SeaWatch also spotted the boat and reported it was "dangerously overcrowded and in frightening waves".</div><div><br></div><div>In a statement, Italy's coastguard confirmed that Alarm Phone had notified Rome's rescue coordination centre, as well as Maltese and Libyan authorities, about the boat.</div><div><br></div><div>A merchant vessel that had headed towards the boat after the alert by SeaWatch reported difficulty in rescuing the boat due to bad weather, the coastguard said.</div><div><br></div><div>- Distress call -</div><div>Authorities in Libya -- which the coastguard said was responsible for search and rescue efforts in that zone -- reported "a lack of availability of naval assets" and requested the support of Rome, which dispatched three additional nearby merchant ships to the area, according to the statement.</div><div><br></div><div>SeaWatch also had tweeted on Saturday that Tripoli said it was "unable to send a patrol boat."</div><div><br></div><div>The rescue operation began early Sunday morning after the cargo vessel "Froland" reached the site, during which the migrant boat overturned, the coastguard said.</div><div><br></div><div>Two migrants among the 17 pulled safely onboard needed urgent medical care and the ship headed to Malta to disembark them.</div><div><br></div><div>Merchant ships were still in the area searching for the missing, along with two Frontex planes, it said.</div><div><br></div><div>"The rescue operation took place outside the Italian SAR (search-and-rescue) area of responsibility, recording the inactivity of the other National Maritime Coordination and Rescue Centres involved in the area," the coastguard said.</div><div><br></div><div>On Sunday morning, Alarm Phone said the migrants were "exhausted and still out at sea, fighting the bad wind &amp; weather conditions," more than a day after authorities had been alerted.</div><div><br></div><div>Alarm Phone later said it had lost contact with the boat.</div><div><br></div><div>- Intercepting migrants -</div><div><br></div><div>Meloni's Brothers of Italy party won elections last year on a pledge to curb sea arrivals, and the ruling coalition has clamped down on migrant rescue charities.</div><div><br></div><div>Critics say the government's policy of treating migrant boats as a law enforcement issue, rather than a humanitarian one, may have fatally delayed help to the shipwrecked migrants.</div><div><br></div><div>In November, Italy renewed a controversial EU-backed deal with Libya to stop migrants from departing its shores for Europe, including training its coastguard and supplying vessels.</div><div><br></div><div>Human rights groups say many intercepted migrants end up in detention centres where they are tortured or sexually abused.</div><div><br></div><div>Last week, Meloni announced a new decree with stiffer punishments for human traffickers following a cabinet meeting held symbolically in Cutro, near the site of the shipwreck.</div><div><br></div><div>On Saturday, the coastguard brought more than 1,300 rescued migrants safely to Italian ports after three packed boats ran into bad weather.</div><div><br></div><div>Thousands of people marched in Cutro Saturday to remember the victims of the shipwreck, carrying a cross made of the boat's splintered wood through the town to the water's edge. Source: AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>