TOAt least 64 migrants are missing after the shipwreck in which they were traveling about 110 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria (southern Italy), which brings the number of dead and missing in the Mediterranean so far this year to more than 800, various UN agencies revealed this Monday.
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“We express our deep regret for the dozens of victims of two new accidents in the Mediterranean,” said the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Fund in a joint statement. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The Italian Coast Guard has been searching since Sunday night for the 64 missing, after a fishing boat rescued 11 survivors, who were transferred by the authorities to the Calabrian port of Roccella Jonicanext to the corpse of a woman.
How did the shipwreck occur?
According to the reconstruction of the survivors, “the engine of the boat, which left Turkey eight days earlier, caught fire, causing it to capsize when it was 110 nautical miles from the Italian coast,” the UN agencies explained. .
The survivors, including two unaccompanied children and two women, as well as the missing came from Iran, Syria and Iraq, the sources explained.
“Teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) provided first aid to the rescued people and are mobilizing to provide psychological support to all survivors,” this NGO added.
There are also members of the Red Cross, Civil Protection and law enforcement at the port to provide first aid to the migrants, who were transferred by ambulance to nearby hospitals.
Furthermore, “in a first shipwreck, it is estimated that ten people lost their lives due to asphyxiation on the lower deck of the boat in which they were traveling” and “51 survivors were taken to (the island of) Lampedusa (southern Italy) by the sailboat Nadir of the NGO Resqship, which rescued them from the wooden boat that had sailed from Libya,” according to UNHCR, IOM and UNICEF.
File photo of a boat in the Mediterranean.
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The NGO noted that they had to free the migrants with an axe, since they were trapped at the bottom of the boat, along with the 10 bodies.
“If these data are confirmed, the number of dead and missing in the Mediterranean would rise to more than 800, an average of almost 5 dead and missing per day since the beginning of the year,” said the UN agencies, which again called for more “resources and capabilities” in “support of the Italian Coast Guard”.
If these data are confirmed, the number of dead and missing in the Mediterranean would rise to more than 800, an average of almost 5 dead and missing per day since the beginning of the year.
In addition to “the urgent need for European support for investigation and rescue operations, it is essential to promote greater access to safe and regular routes in the European Union for (EU) migrants and refugees, so that they are not forced to risk their lives at sea.
“Every shipwreck represents a collective failure, a failure that is a tangible sign of the inability of States to protect the most vulnerable people,” they noted.
So far this year until June 14, 23,235 migrants have arrived on Italian shores, compared to 55,662 in the same period of the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
The other tragedies that mourn the Mediterranean
The shipwreck occurred on the same coast where a year ago in Steccato de Cutro almost a hundred migrants lost their lives.
A week ago, the central Mediterranean was the scene of another tragedy when at least 17 bodies appeared floating in the sea and 12 of them were recovered by the ships of the NGOs Geo Barents and Ocean Viking.
The NGOs then denounced the “devastating and reckless European policies regarding migration and non-assistance to people undertaking the Mediterranean route.”
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