Doctors Without Borders reports the umpteenth shipwreck while denouncing the “negligence” and “indifference” of the countries of the European Union
Although the focus of international attention is on Ukraine, the Mediterranean remains a sea of death for many of the migrants who cross it in search of a better future in Europe. In recent days, around 100 people have lost their lives in two shipwrecks in the Sicilian Channel, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), whose rescue ship, the Geo Barents, carries 113 survivors on board. on March 29 rescued an inflatable boat that was drifting in a difficult operation that lasted for two hours. Now they await the assignment of a safe port where they can go ashore.
This NGO assured in a note that the death of around more than 90 people would have taken place on April 2, when a boat capsized under unknown circumstances four days after setting sail from the North African coast. Four survivors reported the disaster when they were rescued by the oil tanker Alegria 1, which continued on its way to Libya and refused to accept the medical help offered by the crew of the Geo Barents or take the migrants to a safe port. Two days earlier, it emerged that there were four children and seven women killed in a drifting inflatable with 127 survivors on board, who were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard and taken to that country.
MSF asked that, as soon as possible, the Italian or Maltese authorities take care of the 113 migrants on board and regretted the “negligence” allegedly shown by the authorities of these two countries when attending to the boats in danger that they set sail from the Libyan coast, loaded with displaced persons and refugees trying to reach Europe. MSF also lamented the “indifference” of the institutions of the European Union and other member countries “in the face of the growing number of deaths and the continuing violation of human rights in the Mediterranean Sea.”
Among the people rescued by the aforementioned humanitarian organization is Jean, a 17-year-old boy from Guinea Conakry. “When he was in the inflatable, the floor broke and water started to enter,” the young man explained, according to an MSF note. “I jumped into the sea because I panicked. I tried everything I could to stay alive, but I noticed that I was starting to choke. Suddenly, someone from the rescue team pulled me out of the water, but after that I don’t remember anything else because I was already unconscious.”
According to data provided by the United Nations, from the beginning of 2022 and until April 3, more than 15,000 people arrived in Europe by sea. The UN counts 500 deaths on the different routes to the Old Continent, including land routes. The Italian Ministry of the Interior, for its part, reports that so far this year 6,832 migrants have arrived in Italy through the Sicilian Channel, a figure that is significantly lower than in the same period in 2021, when 8,475 arrived. Egyptians constitute the most common nationality, followed by Bengalis, Tunisians, Afghans, Eritreans and Ivorian.
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