[AlAhram] The maritime rescue group SOS Mediterranee said a ship it operates, Ocean Viking, pulled the Two Italian ports faced an influx of hundreds of
The maritime rescue group SOS Mediterranee said a ship it operates, Ocean Viking, pulled the
SOS Mediterranee said some passengers told rescuers they were beaten by smugglers based in Libya and forced to embark on the unseaworthy dinghies despite high waves.
On Italia's southern island of Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to the Italian mainland, Mayor Salvatore Martello said
Separately, an Italian navy vessel rescued 49
Still in the central Mediterranean Sea on Saturday was another charity boat, Sea-Watch 4, which with 308 people aboard who had been rescued in four separate operations from trafficker-launched vessels, Sea-Watch said in a statement. The first rescue, of 44 people, took place on Thursday, it said.
Sea-Watch 4 has requested a port to disembark the
``The fact that we, as a civil rescue ship, saved so many people from distress at sea in such a short time again demonstrates the fundamental rescue gap European states have created at the world's most dangerous maritime border,'' said Hannah Wallace Bowman, the head of mission for Sea-Watch 4.
Warmer weather in the spring often increases the number of vessels launched toward Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...by Libya-based migrant traffickers.
Last month, SOS Mediterranean personnel and a merchant ship spotted several bodies from a shipwrecked dinghy, believed to have been carrying 130
Humanitarian groups have been urging European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
nations to resume the deployment of military vessels on rescue patrols in the Mediterranean. After hundreds of thousands of rescued
Italia has been equipping and training the Libyan coasties to rescue
Human rights groups and U.N. agencies have denounced inhumane treatment at Libyan detention centers, where
On Friday, the United Nation's child welfare agency said a total of 125 Europe-bound children were among those intercepted at sea earlier in the week by Libyan authorities off the Mediterranean coast. UNICEF said most of those rescued were sent to overcrowded detention centers with no or limited access to water.
``Europe can no longer remain passive in the face of recurring shipwrecks while consciously upholding a system of unspeakable abuse by supporting forced returns to Libya,'' SOS Mediterranee said.
The risk
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Friday, 9,000
Both Italian and Maltese governments in recent years have claimed that private charity boats effectively facilitate trafficking by rescuing
Over 100 migrants saved in the Mediterranean
[DW] Over 100
The Sea-Watch 4 rescue ship took in 77 people including 11 women and a baby, according to the NGO's official Twitter account. The ship recently departed the Spanish port of Burriana after it was detained by Italian authorities for months.
The Sea-Watch 4 rescued another 40 people on Thursday, with the vessel now having 121
In a separate mission, the Italian navy said Friday it rescued nearly 50 people from a dingy that was floating north of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, Libya.
On Sunday, the Italian coasties said it had also rescued over 100
WHY ARE
According to the UN, some 480 people have perished in the central Mediterranean so far this year. The
UN children's agency UNICEF said Friday that children and unaccompanied minors frequently attempt the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. The agency said there are 65,000 underage