Malta to bury 24 victims of latest shipwreck tragedy

Migrants wait to board on a cruise ship as they leave the Island of Lampedusa, Southern Italy, to be transferred in Porto Empedocle, Sicily. The 24 bodies recovered from the wreck of the migrant boat will be buried in Malta.

The Maltese army says an Italian coast guard ship has brought to Malta the bodies of 24 victims of what could be the Mediterranean’s deadliest migrant tragedy.

The coast guard ship Gregoretti dropped off the bodies early Monday and was continuing on to Sicily with 28 survivors of this weekend’s shipwreck near the Libyan coast that may have claimed as many as 700 lives. The dead will be buried in Malta.