Scores of Migrants Drown In Mediterranean Disaster

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MARSEILLE, FRANCE (Worthy News) – Scores of migrants have died after a rubber dinghy ran into trouble in the Mediterranean, which was already a sea cemetery of the thousands who perished before them, Worthy News learned Thursday.

Some 25 survivors were picked up by the Ocean Viking, a vessel operated by the Marseille-based SOS Méditerranée.

However, “Survivors report that at least 60 people died en route, including women and at least one child,” the humanitarian group added.

The group’s Ocean Viking rescue ship is heading for port, carrying 224 people rescued from different boats.

Among them are the 25 from a boat that survivors said had set off from Zawiya, Libya, on March 8 — only for its motor to give out three days later.

“According to first testimonies, the boat spent approximately a week lost at sea” without enough food and water, aid workers said.

”Survivors recount that many people perished and are now missing,” SOS Méditerranée added in remarks monitored by Worthy News.

MEDICAL CARE

“All survivors are under medical care, and an urgent medical evacuation has been requested for two persons found unconscious and in critical condition,” the group explained.

Italian authorities directed the ship to Ancona on Italy’s eastern coast, which SOS Méditerranée said was 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) from its current position. The aid group asked Italian authorities for “somewhere closer to put ashore.”

Critics have accused groups such as SOS Méditerranée of indirectly enabling human smuggling and people risking their lives by providing vessels to pick migrants up at sea. However, humanitarian groups say European countries are cynically reluctant or unable to save the lives of vulnerable people.

The migrants picked up Thursday are among the 39,000 people that SOS Méditerranée says it has rescued in the Mediterranean since 2016 — most of them on the Central Mediterranean route, the world’s most dangerous migrant passage.

Last year, 3,105 migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty died or were reported missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, according to data released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

This year alone, at least 278 migrants have drowned in the area so far this year, according to officials.

The IOM said last week that 2023 was the deadliest year for migrants since records began a decade ago, with at least 8,565 people dying on migration routes worldwide.

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