The Italian Coast Guard recovered the bodies of 13 people, all women, who died after a crowded migrant boat capsized in heavy weather off the coast of Lampedusa, the local authorities said on Monday.

Coast guard officials said rescue vessels had picked up 22 survivors near Lampedusa, south of Sicily, but they feared that many other people might have died, in the latest in a long line of sea disasters to hit migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe.

One of the survivors said she had lost her sister and 8-month-old niece in the tragedy.

The ship, which had set off from Tunisia, was carrying around 50 people, almost all from Tunisia and West Africa, the United Nations migration agency said.

Coast guard members received an alert late on Sunday that a boat was in difficulty. Two rescue vessels found the ship, which was listing, just after midnight about six nautical miles from Lampedusa.