Twenty-six Nigerian women, most of them teenagers, have been found dead and their bodies recovered at sea as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean.
According to the BBC, there are suspicions that they may have been sexually abused and murdered while Italian prosecutors are investigating the deaths of the women.
Five migrants are being questioned in the southern port of Salerno, Italy, after a Spanish warship, Cantabria, docked there carrying 375 migrants and the bodies of the dead women, following several rescues.
Italian media reported that the women’s bodies were kept in a refrigerated section of the warship as most of them, aged 14-18, had been on a rubber boat with 64 other people which was believed to have capsized.
It was revealed that most of the 375 survivors brought to Salerno were sub-Saharan Africans, from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia and Sudan.
Among them were 90 women, eight of them pregnant, and 52 children.
There were also some Libyan men and women on board.
Migrants are reportedly charged about $6,000 (£4,578) each to get to Italy, $4,000 of which is for the trans-Saharan journey to Libya. However, many migrants have reported violence, including torture and sexual abuse, by the gangs facilitating the trip.
