12,000 migrants saved from the sea
Another boat sinks as desperate families attempt deadly journey across the Med
MORE than 12,000 migrants have been rescued crossing the Mediterranean from Africa in the past five days.
Italian rescuers said yesterday was the busiest they had ever faced with 4,000 people saved. But up to 30 drowned when their overloaded boat started taking on water off the Libyan coast. A plane spotted the sinking vessel and a Spanish frigate and Italian coastguard cutter raced to the scene.
Captain Antonello de Renzis Sonnino, of the EU’s people-smuggling squad, said: ‘A Luxembourg reconnaissance plane spotted a capsized boat around 35 nautical miles off the Libyan coast with about 100 migrants in the water or clinging to the sinking vessel.
‘Unfortunately there were bodies too. We estimate the dead to be between 20 and 30 people.’
Italian coordinators said 88 people were picked up, with at least a further 4,000 rescued through the day in 22 separate search-and-rescue operations. The previous record was 6,000 people saved over two days. The Libyan navy also reported finding four bodies as well as two empty boats suggesting many more victims.
Five bodies were brought ashore at Porto Empedocle in Sicily yesterday following a horrific incident on Wednesday that cost as many as 100 lives.
Francesco Lavezzo, captain of the Italian naval vessel Bettica, said he had never seen a ‘situation of this magnitude’. He says more passengers had probably drowned inside the upturned hull of the boat. Too dangerous to set right, it was left to sink.
‘It was very unpleasant,’ he said. ‘We saw this fishing boat full of migrants and went to help. ‘We took 240 to safety. Then the migrants left on their boat began to panic. They moved over to one side and their boat was listing.
‘We shouted at them to stay still. We said do not move, but the boat turned over and they fell into the sea.’
Around 300 others survived by clinging to life jackets and life rafts thrown by rescuers.
Save the Children and Red Cross staffed checked over the 540 survivors in Porto Empedocle and Italian migration teams allocated them beds in a country already bursting with refugees. Among them were ten children, one a babe in arms.
Gemma Parkin of Save the Children said: ‘The young ones are vulnerable and need help when they arrive. The
‘We shouted at them to stay still’
camps are full and they are being created everywhere in sports halls to former schools. The children are being put with adults which is unsafe.’
The route into Italy has been dominated by migrants from North Africa. But yesterday’s arrivals were said to have included Libyans, Syrians and Moroccans taking advantage of good weather. Since Sunday at least 12,436 people have been rescued. Of these 2,166 were intercepted by the Libyan coastguard and taken back, but the vast majority went on to Italy. The latest arrivals bring the number of people rescued and transferred to Italy since the start of the year to nearly 40,000.
The discovery of Syrians among the rescued suggests that the migrant route may have started to shift following a deal with Turkey to close the route through the Greek islands.
A baby girl who survived a shipwreck that killed her parents and captured the heart of an Italian doctor yesterday became the new face of Italy’s migrant drama.
Nine-month-old Favour arrived alone on the island of Lampedusa, which lies closer to the shores of north Africa than Italy, after her father and pregnant mother died during a nightmarish journey.
The boat, carrying about 120 people largely from Mali and Nigeria, overturned on Tuesday after the migrants rushed to one side on spotting a ship – a frequent and often fatal mistake.
Survivors pulled from the sea were taken to Lampedusa’s hospital.
Pietro Bartolo, the island’s only doctor, who has cared for hundreds of undernourished, dehydrated and distressed migrants, said he did not want to let the little girl go.
‘I’ve asked to foster her, I want to keep her with me forever,’ he told Italian media. ‘She is a marvellous creature, she hugged me, she didn’t shed a tear.’