- Alarm Phone: 4 boats in serious danger in the Mediterranean
- Migrants, the boat overturns. Sea Watch: "Shipwreck announced between Malta and Tripoli"
- The alarm of NGOs from the Mediterranean: help is needed immediately
- Alan Kurdi rescues 150 people off Libya. The NGO: "Italy denies a port"
Share
by Tiziana Di Giovannandrea 13 April 2020We have been reporting landings and shipwrecks by NGOs in the Mediterranean and Alarm Phone for a week, the direct telephone line for help to people who cross the Mediterranean Sea to the EU and who are in difficulty.At the moment, the shipwreck reported yesterday by the NGO Sea Watch seems to be averted. The Italian Coast Guard explained that the failed boat was what remained of an old accident, in which the people on board had been rescued by the Libyan authorities.
The information was confirmed by Frontex that Sunday had sighted a "deflated dinghy without engine" even if "there were no signs of people on the boat or in the vicinity. The coordination center in Rome - said the spokeswoman for the European agency - confirmed that the boat corresponded to that of an old accident, in which migrants had been rescued and the dinghy left empty to drift.
Currently there would be a dinghy drifting in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea of the 4 damaged boats reported in recent days.
Two boats landed between yesterday and today in Sicily: 101 in Pozzallo (Ragusa) and 77 in Portopalo di Capo Passero (Syracuse); a third with 47 on board was rescued by the humanitarian ship Aita Mari, which in the afternoon had consent to the landing from Malta; of another - loaded with about 55 people - who should be in the SAR area of Malta, Alarm Phone says it has lost contact since yesterday.
Desperate requests for help came from the boat in difficulty and adrift: "The weather is getting worse, we called Malta once again but we have not received any answers. We are awaiting instructions", one of the last messages launched by the boat that also asked medical support. On board the dinghy, in fact, there would also be a pregnant woman with her seven year old daughter. "We are following your instructions but we are not seeing any boats to the rescue - says a migrant on board -. We are in critical condition, we cannot wait any longer, please help us".
In the meantime, the situation on Alan Kurdi has come to a solution pending transhipment, after yesterday the Head of Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli had signed the quarantine measure at sea, at the request of infrastructure minister Paola De Micheli. The 156 migrants on board will be transferred in the next few hours on the "Azzurra" ship of the Gnv made available yesterday by the Sicilian governor, Nello Musumeci. There they will spend the quarantine period.