Security forces have recovered five bodies of migrants next to a merchant ship
Humanitarian ships rescued more than 500 shipwrecked people in the Central Mediterranean
More than 1,500 people have arrived in the last few hours on the Italian coast, where the security forces have recovered five corpses of migrants next to a merchant ship, while the humanitarian ships Sea Watch 3 and Ocean Viking have rescued more than 500 shipwrecked in the Central Mediterranean.
A drifting fishing boat with 674 people was rescued this Saturday 124 miles from Calabria by a merchant ship, three Coast Guard patrol boats and a unit from the Guardia di Finanza, who also found five lifeless bodies on board the boat, official sources reported today.
The rescued, many of them in the water, were transferred in a coast guard ship to the ports of Calabria and Sicilyafter a rescue operation in which a Navy maritime patrol plane, which made the first sighting, and a Frontex plane also took part.
The Coast Guard had previously rescued other immigrants who were on boats in precarious navigation conditions. In one of the operations, the intervention of a helicopter from the Catania air base was necessary to carry out the medical evacuation of a woman.
About 900 migrants
In addition, some 900 migrants, mostly Afghans, Pakistanis, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Somalis, Nigerians, Senegalese and Eritreans from Libyahave landed since Saturday on the island of Lampedusa, whose reception center is once again saturated with more than 1,300 people, when its capacity is for about 350.
Just a week ago, the overcrowding and state of abandonment of the center, with about 2,000 people and mountains of accumulated garbage, led the Italian Navy to send a ship to transfer about 600 migrants to other cities.
The arrivals of barges to the small Italian island, the closest to the African continent, are continuous, sometimes after being intercepted by the Coast Guard, although on many occasions the migrants arrive directly on the beaches of Lampedusa.
In bell
“Lampedusa in emergency”, said today the leader of the League, the far-right Matteo Salviniwho took advantage of the situation in that center to campaign for the early elections that have been called in the country after the fall of Mario Draghi’s government.
“On September 25, Italians will finally be able to choose change: security, value and border control will return“, added Salvini, who was already Minister of the Interior in 2018 and who put into practice a very harsh policy regarding immigration, which has even led him to be tried for preventing the landing of immigrants in the country for weeks.
Also, the Sea Watch3 has rescued 428 people in four operations carried out this Saturday after being alerted by the Alarm Phonean NGO that receives calls from migrants who encounter problems while sailing in the Central Mediterranean.
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“Sea Watch 3 now has 428 people on board, rescued from 4 overcrowded boats in 12 hours yesterday,” German NGO Sea Watch International said on Twitter, “who the European Union would rather see killed or illegally dragged to Libya. The deaths and human rights violations are accepted as measures to seal the European fortress. Let’s tear down these walls!”
The Ocean Viking, from the NGO Sos Mediterránee, also carried out rescue work today “when seeing an overloaded boat in international waters coming from Libya with” 87 people, including 57 unaccompanied minors who were rescued. None of them had life jackets.”