The leaders of Italy have decided to come to the aid of the migrants present on the boat chartered by the street artist Banksy. The Italian coast guard responded on Saturday to the distress messages in the Mediterranean from the ship Louise Michel, evacuating the 49 most fragile people as a priority.
Italy takes over from Malta
"In view of the dangerousness of the situation, the coast guards sent a patrol boat from Lampedusa to the site which took on board the 49 people considered to be the most fragile, including 32 women, 13 children and 4 men", they indicated. . The body of a deceased migrant was also evacuated to Lampedusa. The Louise Michel, who rescued a total of 219 migrants at sea in two operations, was then in "a search and rescue zone" in the State of Malta. But "due to the expected deterioration of maritime weather conditions in the region", Malta contacted the Italian Coast Guard to carry out the operation.
The Italian Coastguard have evacuated 49 of our most vulnerable guests. They have also taken the body of the deceased person who had passed away before the crew reached the stricken rubber boat yesterday. May he rest in peace.
- LouiseMichel (@MVLouiseMichel) August 29, 2020In the evening, all the other passengers were finally transferred to a humanitarian boat chartered by the German NGO Sea-Watch and the Médecins sans frontières (MSF) organization, which came to meet him. Sea-Watch 4, which itself had already rescued 201 migrants in the Mediterranean, said it had taken care of some 150 additional people. This boat has in particular a clinic on board, subject to "Covid procedures to be respected", had specified earlier in the day Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, in charge of humanitarian issues of MSF in the Netherlands.
The # SeaWatch4 has completed the transshipment of about 150 people rescued in recent days by the #LouiseMichel.
We now have ~ 350 people on board who need to disembark in a safe port as soon as possible. # DefendSolidarity pic.twitter.com/ZIMGkwBlGi
Increase in departure attempts
The humanitarian ship Louise Michel, which has only ten crew members, had appealed for help overnight from Friday to Saturday, in particular lamenting a death on board. The migrants collected for their part mentioned the death of three people at sea before their recovery, reports the boat chartered by Banksy.
According to the latest data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), attempts to leave are increasing in the Mediterranean, the deadliest migratory route in the world. Between early January and late July, attempts to leave Libya increased by 91%, compared to the same period last year, representing 14,481 people who set sail.
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