15 Migrants Drowned in the Mediterranean Despite Calls for Help
Migrants in the Mediterranean Sea seen from the Sea Bird light aircraft. Dec. 18, 2024. X/ @seawatch_intl
December 20, 2024 Hour: 8:21 am
SOS Humanity highlighted that over 1,600 migrants have died trying to reach Italy via the central Mediterranean route.
On Thursday, the NGO Sea Watch denounced that at least 15 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean after falling from the vessel they were traveling on, despite multiple calls for help. Meanwhile, the 82 survivors were intercepted by a patrol of the Libyan Coast Guard.
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A day earlier, Sea Watch had reported that there was no record of any rescue operation being carried out to save over 100 people adrift on a vessel in the Mediterranean.
“Our reconnaissance aircraft, the Sea Bird, just detected around 100 people in Tunisia’s search and rescue zone. They are adrift on a severely leaning wooden boat,” Sea Watch warned, sharing images showing the keel rising between large waves and the deck crowded with people.
Their position was immediately relayed via emergency channels, but no response came, even though some merchant ships were nearby. However, “there was no response on the radio,” the NGO stated.
On December 11, another shipwreck occurred, which came to light when an 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone, the sole survivor, was rescued in the middle of the sea. She had been traveling on a boat carrying around 45 people.
The crew of the sailboat Trotamar III, operated by the German NGO Compass Collective, was searching for a boat in distress when they heard the girl’s cries in the water at night, about ten miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa, with no sign of the other migrants.
The annual report from the NGO SOS Humanity highlighted that more than 1,600 children, women, and men died trying to reach Italy via the central Mediterranean route. Nearly 21,000 people fleeing have been intercepted at sea by the Libyan Coast Guard and forced to return to detention centers in Libya.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
