The Italian coastguard is currently conducting operations to rescue approximately 1,200 migrants from two boats in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to cross from North Africa.
According to German non-profit ResQship, at least two people lost their lives during the boat crossings over the weekend, despite the Italian coastguard’s efforts to rescue migrants at sea. Additionally, the coastguard has already conducted several other operations since Friday, rescuing around 2,000 people from precarious boats in the Mediterranean.
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One of the boats, which has 400 people on board and is in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy, has previously been reported in Maltese waters.
Alarm Phone reported that it had made touch with persons on board the boat, which is now in Italian seas south-east of Capo Passero. On Sunday, the boat was claimed to be drifting and taking on water.
A woman on board also stated that the ship was without its captain and that several individuals needed medical attention.
The Italian coast guard is conducting a rescue operation for the 800 individuals on the other overcrowded boat, located southeast of Syracuse. However, the operation has been complicated by the excessive number of people onboard. The boat’s point of departure remains unclear at this time.
Several boats arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend, which is a main destination for those seeking to enter Europe. Unfortunately, ResQship reported that at least two migrants lost their lives, and around 20 others were unaccounted for following the sinking of their vessel on Saturday night.
Doctors Without Borders’ Geo Barents vessel carried out an 11-hour rescue operation in rough seas off Malta last week, successfully saving 440 migrants. However, at least four individuals lost their lives while attempting to reach Italy when two boats carrying African migrants sank off Tunisia on Saturday, leaving 23 others missing.
Since 2014, more than 26,000 individuals have perished or gone missing at sea in the central Mediterranean, according to the monitoring group IOM Missing Migrants Project.
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The Italian coastguard frequently conducts large-scale rescue operations to help migrants attempting to traverse the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded and dangerous boats. Many of these migrants are fleeing conflict, persecution, or poverty in their home countries in search of a better life in Europe.
Despite the rise in arrivals, the Italian government continues to take a hardline approach to irregular migration. This includes measures such as closing ports to NGO rescue ships, increasing patrols in the Mediterranean and imposing fines on rescue vessels that enter Italian waters without permission.
However, these measures have been criticized by human rights groups, who argue that they put the lives of migrants at risk and violate international law.
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