Another 25 migrants managed to be rescued, and they were the ones who reported the deaths. They were adrift for days without food or water.
Around 60 people drowned on a boat carrying migrants through the Mediterranean Sea from Libya, heading to Italy or Malta, according to reports from SOS Méditerranéea humanitarian rescue group.
The French humanitarian association reported this Wednesday the rescue of 25 people in a delicate state of health, in coordination with the Italian Coast Guard, and added that two people were transferred unconscious to Sicily by helicopter. The central Mediterranean is one of the deadliest migratory routes in the world, where 2,500 migrants died in 2023, and 226 have died since the beginning of 2024according to information from the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).
SOS Méditerranée reported that the migrants left seven days before the rescue, from Zawiya, Libya. “His engine broke down after three days, leaving his boat lost (and) adrift without water or food for days.” “Survivors said that at least 60 people perished on the road, including women and at least one child,” they reported in X. For its part, the IOM was “deeply concerned” by the news. “Urgent measures are needed to reinforce maritime patrols and avoid further tragedies”published in X.
From SOS Méditarranée they indicated that they had rescued another 113 people, including two children, from a wooden boat and another 88 from an inflatable boat., in rescue operations carried out on Wednesday and Thursday. They had been ordered to sail to the Italian port of Ancona, on the Adriatic Sea, 1,500 kilometers away. However, the humanitarian group asked for a closer landing port, due to the poor condition of the survivors, some of whom are wearing oxygen masks.
Both SOS Méditerranée and other humanitarian associations complain that the right-wing Italian government, headed by Giorgia Meloni, hinders these rescues, setting up distant ports for disembarkation and confiscating some of their boats. Italy and other European Union countries are trying to stop the number of maritime migrants coming from North Africa, offering money or material to Libya and Tunisia to stop them leaving their coasts. According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, 5,968 migrants have arrived by sea so far this year, a number that was reduced compared to the 19,937 that had been registered at this same stage in 2023.
The tweet that SOS Méditerranée published after the rescue of the African migrants
Source: Ambito
