Photos: 3-year-old baby from Nigeria among 17 people dead/mising in the Mediterranean Sea- Italian Red Cross
Another tragedy struck in the Mediterranean Sea
last night, October 13th. At least 17 people are considered to be dead/missing
according to the 113 survivors rescued from a single rubber boat and now aboard
the Phoenix, the Migrant Offshore Station (MOAS) vessel operating in
partnership with the Italian Red Cross (CRI).
A 3-year-old baby from
Nigeria is among those confirmed as missing. The mother, who is safe aboard the
MOAS vessel, is still desperately asking for him.
“I was on the rubber boat with my son, he was
crying and holding on to me. The sea was rough and the boat was taking on
water. At one point some people started to panic. The next thing I knew I was
pushed into the water and I lost my son in the chaos as I was trying to grab a
life jacket. In a few days he would have been three years old" the
Nigerian woman recounted to the crew aboard the Phoenix while still in shock.
Among the other
survivors is also a young man who recounts having boarded the migrant vessel
with 5 friends, none of whom were found; while another man has told our crew
that he saw a young girl of around 16 years drown before the rescue crews made
it on the scene.
The Phoenix crew was
alerted of the vessel in distress following a call received at 19:00 from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome
last night. Still, it was only at 21:20 that the rubber
boat was sighted thanks to the Schiebel CAMCOPTER S-100 drones on board the
Phoenix. In cooperation with the other search-and-rescue NGOs in the area, a
rescue operation was swiftly launched.
Thanks to the great
effort from the crews of Proactiva Open Arms, Jugend Rettet, the Boat Refugee
Foundation and the joint MOAS-CRI mission, the rescue operation was swiftly
carried out and all the survivors quickly transferred on board the Phoenix.
Following the rescue operation, a search to recover bodies was launched,
however this had to be interrupted due to persistent rough weather at sea. The number
of those dead/missing cannot be confirmed.
According to survivors,
they departed from Sabrata in Libya at around 14:00 yesterday afternoon. At the time of rescue, many people had
already been in the water for several hours. Many people now on board the
Phoenix are suffering from burns on various parts of their bodies, cause by the
fuel leaked from the engine. Women in particular are among those suffering from
burns since, unlike the men, they couldn’t take their clothes off and as a
result their burns are more grievous.
One of the women on
board is in a state of shock with 36% of her body covered in first degree
burns. The immediate need to have her medically evacuated is currently hampered
by the adverse weather conditions.
"The presence of various search-and-rescue
operations in the Mediterranean Sea will not stop deaths at sea. As already
declared several times, volunteer organisations cannot replace the
institutions: we want a European response to end this shameful tragedy. It is
not migration that is killing people, it is the indifference of governments and
the international community at large", said the national president of the
Italian Red Cross, Francesco Rocca.
"Our crews are tired of witnessing yet
again people dying needlessly on what continues to be the most dangerous
migrant route in the world. Amongst the 17 people thought to have died last
night is a child who was not yet three, and whose mother’s shock and grief at
the loss of her son is yet another stark reminder of the very real human cost
of this journey", says Pete Sweetnam, director of MOAS.
Concurrently, as the
Phoenix sails north, the second vessel run by MOAS in partnership with CRI –
Responder – is on its way to Messina with 175 migrants on board who were
rescued early in the week. They are expected to arrive tomorrow morning.
More photos...
Source: Migrant Offshore Station (MOAS)
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