120 could be the victims of a shipwreck of migrants in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Libya. Humanitarian sources report this. “We arrived at the scene too late,” they said.
Three freighters and the ship Ocean Viking they had been looking for hours for a boat on which there are over 100 people, of which nothing more was known since yesterday. “We notified the authorities 27 hours ago. What are they doing? We have lost contact with them and we do not know if they survived the night. We fear the worst”, he wrote in the day. Alarm Phone.
A summit in Rome with the Libyans and the UN for the migrant plan
by Alessandra Ziniti
“The sea is very rough – he explained a few hours ago Sos Mediterranee – we could be faced with a probable tragedy. “Yesterday evening the Alarm Phone wrote:” We spoke with the Libyan authorities. They say they won’t go out to sea due to the weather. EU and Libya authorities are letting people die! All day we asked for an intervention, but they refused “.
“We saw at least ten bodies” and “no survivors”. The Ocean Viking crew recounts the scenario they faced when they arrived at the site of the shipwreck. “Today – continues the NGO – after hours of research, our worst fear has come true. The crew had to witness the devastating consequences of the sinking of a rubber boat north-east of Tripoli. to this same boat with about 130 people on board. In the last 48 hours, the civilian telephone network Alarm Phone has alerted us of a total of three boats in distress in international waters off Libya. All were at least ten hours from our position when we received the reports. We looked for two of these boats, one after the other, in a race against time with very rough sea, with waves up to 6 meters “.
“In the absence of effective coordination by the state – continues the crew – three merchant ships and the Ocean Viking cooperated to organize the search in extremely difficult sea conditions. Today, while we were looking relentlessly – in the total lack of support from competent maritime authorities – three bodies were spotted in the water by the merchant ship MY ROSE. A Frontex plane soon after spotted a wreck of a rubber boat. Since we arrived on site today we have not found any survivors, but we have ten bodies in the vicinity of the wreck “.
Yesterday another boat, on board of which there were about 100 migrants, was brought back to Libya. A woman and a child died in that episode. “We are heartbroken. We think of the lives – underlines the crew of Ocean Viking – that have been lost and of the families who may never be sure of what has happened to their loved ones”.
The fate of another boat, on board of which there were 40 people remains “unknown”. “This – concludes the NGO – is the reality in the central Mediterranean: more than 350 people have already lost their lives in this stretch of sea this year, not counting the dozens of people who died in the shipwreck we witnessed today. States are relinquishing their responsibility for coordinating search and rescue activities, leaving private actors and civil society to fill the deadly void they leave behind. We can see the result of this deliberate inaction in the sea around our ship. “
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