ROME (AP) — A boat carrying would-be immigrants to Italy capsized in the Mediterranean, killing at least 22 people and leaving dozens more missing, reports said. Hundreds of other people have risked their lives in similar crossings in recent days, some travelling by rubber dinghy.
The Mediterranean has been flooded recently by Africans and Middle Easterners taking advantage of calm seas and mild temperatures to try to slip into Europe by way of Italy. Under a new Italian policy, some of those caught have been sent back to Libya by plane, without being given any chance to apply for asylum.

The policy drew criticism from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontieres — Doctors Without Borders.

“Many of the men and women who head to Italy are making dangerous trips to flee war and persecution,” Stefano Savi, director of Doctors Without Borders in Italy, said in a statement this weekend. “Italy has the duty to offer these people the possibility of attaining refugee status through procedures established by national laws.” The boat that capsized Monday off the coast of Tunisia focused attention on the dangers immigrants face when they attempt to slip into Europe, many on small, rickety boats.

The craft was heading from Tunisia to Italy with 70 Moroccans and five Tunisians aboard, Tunisia's official TAP news agency said. Rescue teams saved at least 11 people, but 42 others were reported missing, the agency said, without saying when the accident occurred.

Reports did not specify where in Italy the boat was headed. But many aim for Lampedusa, an arid Italian island that is closer to Africa than Italy. As of Sunday, about 1,200 migrants were being held in a detention centre there, while a few hundred were flown back to Libya, where many of the trips originate.

Boats continued to head towards Lampedusa on Monday. One was a rubber dinghy carrying 22 people from Libya or Tunisia, while another boat carried 12 people from Tunisia, said Michele Niosi, a coast guard official in Lampedusa. A third boat carried about 150 people. It never landed and was being towed back to Tunisia, he said.

Niosi also said that at least three flights took off Monday carrying immigrants off Lampedusa.

An official for the UNHCR expressed concern about the immigrants and the flights. The office said it was still awaiting for a response to a request for access to the clandestine travellers.

“We recognise the very strong pressures that these continuing arrivals are generating, but all those who request asylum should have access to a fair procedure,” said Raymond Hall, the director of UNHCR's regional office for Europe.

Italy's Interior Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano defended the policy in an interview published Monday.

“Sending illegal immigrants back by plane is a method we'll use increasingly,” he was quoted as telling La Stampa. “If they know they will be sent back, maybe they won't set off.”