The Italian maritime rescue NGO Emergency rescued 105 people, including 29 minors, who were adrift in international waters off the coast of Libya in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The vessel boarded was an inflatable dinghy about twelve meters long whose engine had stopped working with the sea state worsening. It had serious structural problems and was taking on water,» said Emergency’s project coordinator, Emanuele Nannini.
»It was an extremely dangerous situation for navigation and for the 105 people on board,» Nannini stressed. Among the migrants rescued there were 17 women, one of whom is seven months pregnant, as well as 29 minors, of whom 25 were unaccompanied.
»We immediately thought of the victims of the Crotone shipwreck,» Nannini has recalled in relation to the shipwreck that occurred at the end of February and in which more than 70 people died. »This was also a boat in a dangerous situation, where people were putting their lives at risk,» he said.
»We are here to help those facing one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world. Women, children, men continue to be killed by the absence of legal and safe channels to reach Europe. It is a duty to rescue them,» he stressed.
The NGO’s vessel ‘Life Support’ has set course for the port of Brindisi, on Italy’s southeast coast, where it is scheduled to dock on Friday.
The rescued people, from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Gambia, Sudan, Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Chad, Eritrea and Burkina Faso, are in good health and »seem to be well», including the pregnant woman, after having been evaluated once rescued.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
