Ten people were found dead in an overcrowded ship carrying migrants off the coast of Libya and were believed to have suffocated, the Doctors Without Borders charity (MSF) said.
“At the bottom of the overcrowded wooden boat, 10 people were found dead […] 10 avoidable deaths… 10 persons who died from suffocation, after 13 hours adrift at sea. The deadly central #Med route. How can we accept this in 2021?” Tweeted Doctors Without Borders Sea.
MSF said late on Tuesday that its Geo Barents rescue ship had picked up 99 survivors earlier in the day.
Tens of thousands of people seek to enter Europe each year via the central Mediterranean, leaving from Libya and Tunisia and heading most often for Italy.
Chasing the European dream is a deadly journey, as 1,236 people have died in the central Mediterranean so far this year, compared with 858 in the same period of 2020, according to the UN’s Migration Agency, IOM.
“The Geo Barents rescue probably avoided other causalities,” tweeted IOM’s spokesperson, Flavio Di Giacomo.
MSF said there were currently 186 people on board Geo Barents, including women and children, the youngest of whom is 10 months old.
“Many of them seem traumatized by the horrendous ordeal,” the charity said, as it called for a safe port to disembark them.
add your comment
Terms of publication : Not to offend the writer, people, sacred things, or attack religions or the divine self, and refrain from racist incitement and insults.