Mediterranean Sea
Six dead on refugee boat: small children died of thirst
An empty rubber dinghy is floating in the Mediterranean – again and again migrants do not survive the crossing. photo
© Jeremiah Gonzalez/AP/dpa
Many people could be saved – albeit some seriously injured. It’s not the first case of this kind these days.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), six people have died on a migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea. Among them are two children aged one and two years. According to the first findings, a twelve-year-old and three adults starved and died of thirst, the UNHCR said on Monday. The dead were discovered in a boat being taken by the Italian Coast Guard to the port town of Pozzallo in Sicily. 26 people survived; many of them had injuries, some of them serious, such as burns.
“They left Turkey,” tweeted Flavio Di Giacomo, coordinator of the UN Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Mediterranean office. “It is unacceptable that people starve and die of thirst at sea.”
The news of little Loujin’s death had already caused a stir in Italy at the weekend. The four-year-old also died of thirst on a migrant boat in the Mediterranean after it had been floating in the Mediterranean for several days. Alarm calls were not heard, the help for Loujin from Syria came too late.
According to the United Nations, 1,033 migrants have died or are missing in the central Mediterranean this year alone. People dare the dangerous crossing in boats, some of which are unseaworthy, because they hope for a better life in the EU.