The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced Monday that more than 20 people are missing after two drowning accidents off the coast of Italy , as good weather contributed to new perilous crossings in the Mediterranean.

"Two boats sank again off Lampedusa with 22 people missing. Our condolences to those who lost loved ones at sea," Chiara Cardoletti, UNHCR's representative in Italy, wrote on Twitter.

"There is an urgent need to stabilize the situation in Tunisia in order to reduce the reasons for so many people risking their lives at sea," Cardoletti added.

An official from UNHCR's media office said that 36 survivors of the first sinking told the Italian coast guard that 19 people on their boat had died after it partially capsized.

The same source stated that three other people died in the second drowning accident.
The Italian Coast Guard did not give information about the two sinkings.

And the newspaper "La Repubblica" wrote that the survivors of the first drowning, including six minors, were on a seven-meter boat that sank in Italian waters and were rescued by a fishing boat.

The newspaper "La Stampa" reported that the people rescued were from Burkina Faso

Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sudan, and paid between 500 and 600 euros for transit.

After four days of bad weather, the number of boats trying to cross to the Italian island of Lampedusa rose again on Sunday.
Monday 1,094 people were in the reception center on the island which was built to hold fewer than 400 people.

According to the Interior Ministry, more than 36,000 people have arrived by sea in Italy this year, compared to about 9,000 during the same period last year.
The International Organization for Migration has recorded 537 deaths or disappearances in the central Mediterranean - the world's most dangerous transit corridor - since the beginning of the year.