HUNDREDS of people have been saved from unseaworthy boats by civilian rescuers in the central Mediterranean in the last few days, during a deadly week for refugees at Europe’s sea borders.
Three civilian rescue ships were given permission to head toward Italy’s ports today, and another was told to head to Tunisia, after their crews saved the lives of at least 685 people.
The Humanity 1 saved 80 people in distress from an overcrowded, unseaworthy inflatable boat in international waters this morning.
“Water had already entered the boat at the time of the rescue,” the ship’s operators SOS Humanity said this afternoon. “No one had a life jacket.
“Among the survivors are several women, including at least one pregnant woman, multiple unaccompanied minors, and two babies.”
The crew carried out a second rescue this afternoon, bringing on board 20 more people.
“On board Humanity 1 there are now over 100 rescued people who had set off from Libya,” SOS Humanity said. “They are all being cared for by the crew.”
SOS Mediterranee said today that the crew aboard its ship, the Ocean Viking, had saved more than 500 lives in 11 operations in 42 hours at sea.
“Operations are still ongoing in the area between Tunisia and [the Italian island of] Lampedusa,” the organisation said.
The MareGo, a small support vessel operated by activists from an organisation of the same name, also saved about 46 people from an overcrowded rubber on Thursday afternoon.
Despite finding the refugees about six hours away from Lampedusa, the Italian authorities ordered the crew to sail for Catania on the island of Sicily — a 48 hour journey from their position.
“After many communications and evidence that the assignment was too far, the Italian authorities have just reassigned our PoS to Pozzallo,” Mare Go said today.
“This is significantly closer than Catania and good news for the 46 people onboard.
“We still regard Pozzallo as an unjustifiable as a PoS because it is too far and is exposing the people on board to unreasonable harm.
“People are now on our outer deck and without adequate sun-shading.
“[The] Italian authorities changed strategy. From closed ports now they assign far away ports. The outcome is very similar: criminalising solidarity, impairing the capacities of the civil fleet, disregarding lives lost at sea.”
Meanwhile, the Maltese coastguard evacuated an unconsciousness pregnant women in a critical state from the the Astral this afternoon.
The Astral crew found her on Thursday night among about 60 people in four heavily overloaded iron boats in Malta’s search-and-rescue (SAR) zone.
Following the evacuation, the Italian authorities told the Astral to request a port of safety (PoS) from Tunisia.
“We reiterate that Tunisia cannot be considered a safe port,” the Astral’s operators Open Arms said today.
“At this moment, five children are traveling on board the Astral, two of which are only a few weeks old, and we urgently need a port to disembark them.”
At least 232 people were saved by the crews of the Louise Michel, Nadir and Geo Barents civilian rescue ships earlier this week.
Forty-one people died in a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa on Wednesday, but the total number of deaths for the week could be far higher.
“We have counted 161 people dead or missing,” said Tamino Bohm, the tactical coordinator on Sea-Watch‘s reconnaissance plane, the Seabird, on Wednesday. “And who knows how many we will never know about.”
The Mediterranean, he said, “literally feels like flying over a graveyard.”
Top image shows Humanity 1 rescuers distributing life jackets to people in distress in the central Mediterranean this morning [Pic: Danilo Campailla / SOS Humanity]
The Civil Fleet 