2023-08-12 10:57:33
This is a report that testifies to the activity of migrant crossings on makeshift boats in the Mediterranean in the heart of summer. In the past 36 hours, the Ocean Viking, an ambulance ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée, has rescued 623 people in distress south-west of the Italian island of Lampedusa during 15 rescues. Among these migrants, the NGO has identified 15 children, 146 unaccompanied minors and two pregnant women.
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Many of the survivors are from Sudan, a country at war for nearly four months, but also from Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin and Bangladesh. The Ocean Viking had received on Thursday “the instruction of the Italian relief coordination center to assist cases of distress southwest of Lampedusa”had explained in the SOS Méditerranée day in a press release.
94,000 migrants on the Italian coasts
Not having the capacity to transport all the survivors over a long distance, some of them were disembarked in the evening towards Lampedusa and the other in Civitavecchia, a port located northwest of Rome, which the ship should “reach by August 14 or 15”, said deputy director of operations Carla Melki. The Ocean Viking had been held for 10 days in July by the Italian authorities who blamed it for security failures, but it had been authorized to return to sea on July 21.
Nearly 94,000 migrants have arrived on Italian shores since the start of the year, more than double than in the same period last year, according to figures published by the Interior Ministry. The central Mediterranean has become the most popular, but also the most dangerous migration route in the world, estimates the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Since 2014, more than 20,000 migrants have drowned or gone missing while trying to reach Europe illegally. The UN agency estimates that since the start of 2023, 1,848 migrants have disappeared there, compared to 1,417 for the whole of 2022.
On the night of August 3 to 4, 41, including three children, went missing after the sinking of a boat that left Sfax in Tunisia on Thursday with 45 migrants on board, the UN in Italy announced on Wednesday on the basis of testimonies of four survivors.
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