– MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) August 30, 2016We’re not new to this but seeing this little guy, his twin brother & his mum rescued was heartbreaking.
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Migrant women from Nigeria, one of them holding a baby, are rescued by emergency teams from a dinghy as they were sailing at the Mediterranean sea toward the Italian coasts, about 17 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016.
Groups such as Proactiva Open Arms and Doctors Without Borders helped take on some 3,000 people who had been travelling in some 20 small wooden boats. Dramatic footage shows migrants – mostly from Eritrea and Somalia – cheering as they were rescued.
A total of 40 different organizations were responsible for bringing in the 6,500 migrants and refugees, including EU’s Marine mission “Sophia”, which fights smugglers; and Frontex, the European Agency tasked with border security.
The number of people plucked from sea on Monday was much higher than the average.
At the same point past year, Missing Migrants Project tallied 2,991 – which means that already in 2016 the world has witnessed over 1,000 more fatalities than occurred through 2015’s first seven months, a 26 percent increase.
About 500 migrants, a lot of them air-ritrayans, have been found floating on a wooden boat off the Libyan coast.
This year, 264,513 people arrived in Europe by sea, landing mostly in Greece and Italy, according to IOM estimates released in mid-August.
“The Italian coastguard predicted that weather conditions would encourage the departure of further boats on Tuesday”, Middle East Eye reports, adding that more than 3,000 people have died attempting the sea crossing from Libya to Italy so far this year-an increase of more than 50 percent from this time last year, according to the International Office of Migration. The total number of arrivals in Italy this year, prior to Monday’s rescues, was at around 105,000, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
A man carries his five days old son after been rescued from a crowded wooden vessel as they were fleeing Libya, during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean sea, about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.
But as migrant boats and rafts cross the Mediterranean Sea, gateways into Europe are narrowing and many are growing wary.
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“It is only by treating the hundreds of thousands like the deserving individuals they are that dignified and humanitarian solutions can truly be reached”, MOAS said.
