Italian Search Boats Find 4 Bodies While Looking for Baby

Instead of finding a newborn missing from a migrant boat that capsized last week, Italian military vessels hunting for him on Monday discovered four adult dead that were evidently from a prior disaster.

The deaths of two women and two men were reportedly found in the waters off the coast of Lampedusa, an Italian tourist island south of Sicily, by Coast Guard and Border Police boats.

A boat carrying migrants capsized on Saturday close to the uninhabited islet of Lampione, which is close to Lampedusa, prompting the search. A couple among the 39 migrants that were saved alerted authorities to the disappearance of their two-week-old daughter.

Authorities frequently only become aware of missing migrants when survivors of sinking boats report that some fellow passengers are missing, or when relatives in home countries hear of a shipwreck and contact authorities in search of information.

Although it takes a while, Italian officials do attempt to identify migrants' bodies that are discovered at sea.

Migrants headed for Europe have been attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in crowded smugglers' boats for more than 10 years, most frequently leaving from Libya or Tunisia. Many of these vessels capsize, flip over, or lose fuel.

Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader who just become prime minister of Italy, has called for a naval blockade of the southern Mediterranean to deter people smugglers.