Nearly 150 people have been rescued Tuesday in two operations carried out by a ship of the German non-governmental organization SOS Humanity in the central Mediterranean, where between Sunday and Monday more than 150 migrants were rescued by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
SOS Humanity has indicated through its account on the social network Twitter that the ‘MV Louise Michel’ rescued late Monday 49 people on a two-storey wooden boat suffering from complications. «The personnel of the ‘Humanity 1’ and the ‘MV Louise Michel’ transferred the 49 people on board the ‘Humanity 1’, in a complicated night rescue,» it has said.
«The presence of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard added tensions. Their ship circumnavigated the rescue situation, but did not intervene. Once the rescue was completed, they set fire to the wooden boat. All relevant coordination and rescue centers, including those in Malta and Italy, were informed and asked to coordinate, but they did not fulfill their responsibilities,» he has denounced.
Shortly after, he has indicated that at around 7.00 a.m. has been located «another boat in trouble». «This time it was a very crowded inflatable boat with more than a hundred people on board. All were safely transferred on board the ‘Humanity 1’ at 9.30 am, with the ‘MV Louise Michel’ again involved in the rescue,» he reiterated.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) lists on its website that so far this year more than 1,960 people have died or have been reported missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach European shores, a figure that in 2021 amounted to 2,062, up from 2020 and 2019 data.
