About 20 corpses have been spotted at sea following the sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Libya, an official from a European Union naval mission in the Mediterranean said Thursday. Bettica threw life rafts and jackets as the frigate Bergamini deployed a helicopter and several rubber motorboats to save the refugees who were trying to climb onto the hull of the overturned vessel.
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The migrants had sounded the alarm by calling for help using a satellite phone about 18 nautical miles off Libya.
Migrant boat traffic in the Mediterranean rose sharply this week amid warm weather and calm seas.
On Thursday, it intercepted four boats early in the morning carrying about 550 people near the western port of Sabratha, Tripoli coastguard spokesman Ayoub Qassem said.
SURVIVORS of a fishing boat shipwreck in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya on Wednesday said that some 100 migrants may have drowned, the International Organisation of Migration said Thursday.
Greek authorities say they have completed the evacuation of the country’s biggest informal refugee and other migrant camp on the Macedonian border. Italy’s coastguard said 5,600 migrants were rescued on Monday and Tuesday ( May 23 and 24), and officials fear numbers will increase as conditions continue to improve.
In August past year, a Palestinian survivor of just such a shipwreck described the moment the boat rolled as “like being flung from a catapult”.
The Italian navy captain described the awful scene to BBC Radio: “I tried to keep the people calm, saying: ‘Please sit down, do not stand, do not walk because the boat isn’t stable.’ But fear is fear, so the people were not listening …” Footage provided by the Italian navy showed the steel-hulled smuggler ship rocked under the weight of its passengers and finally flipped, sending migrants into the water or clambering up the side. Later, the rescued people were taken to Sicily, where almost 40,000 migrants have arrived so far this year.
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The Italian operation was one of two dozen rescues underway. One official with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) called it “a miracle”, especially given how numerous passengers were below deck when the trawler tipped.
