Mediterranean Sea
Italian Coast Guard rescues 1,200 migrants from two fishing boats
Pictures of the Italian coast guard, who had to save almost 1,200 people on just two fishing boats from the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend
© Guardia Costiera / AFP
On the Easter weekend, the Italian coast guard had to move out to several rescue operations in the Mediterranean. She saved a total of 2,000 migrants trying to reach mainland Europe. 1200 of them went on just two fishing boats.
Over the Easter weekend, many migrants from North African countries tried again to get to Europe via the Mediterranean. Many of them got into distress at sea. As reported by the British “Guardian”, among others, the Italian coast guard had to rescue almost 2,000 people over the weekend. More than half of them were on just two fishing boats.
Mediterranean: Italian Coast Guard on Easter weekend in continuous operation
On Monday, the Italian Coast Guard said it was conducting a rescue operation involving two fishing boats and 1,200 people. A ship with around 800 people on board was more than 190 kilometers southeast of the Sicilian city of Syracuse. A second boat with 400 people on board was off the coast of Calabria.
Already on Sunday the NGO “Alarm Phone”, to which Mediterranean migrants in distress at sea can report, reported that they had received an emergency call from the second boat. This had set sail from Tobruk in Libya and was in distress in Maltese waters. He had run out of fuel and water had broken in. The passengers tried to pump it out.
“Sea Watch”: Malta instructed the ship not to rescue migrants in distress
The German NGO “Sea Watch” was finally able to locate the ship with the help of an airplane. The organization reported on Twitter that a merchant ship had supplied the refugee boat with fuel and drinking water, but the Maltese authorities had instructed it not to rescue any passengers.
The Italian Coast Guard said heavy seas with waves up to 1.5 meters high and the number of ships had made rescue missions difficult. More than 2,000 people have been rescued since Friday. On Sunday alone, 26 boats with nearly 1,000 migrants on board arrived on the island of Lampedusa, mostly from The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
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At least four people were killed in several shipwrecks off the coasts of Tunisia and Morocco on Saturday. 23 were reported missing.
Sources: “The Guardians“, “German wave“, with material from AFP and DPA