Italian Coast Guard escorting 1,200 migrants on boats in Mediterranean Sea
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Loading... - Juarez Jose
- 12 Apr 2023
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The Italian Coast Guard was on Tuesday escorting two boats carrying 1,200 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of a major operation in a region that has seen migrant arrivals spike in the past year.
Emergency workers were racing to rescue a barge with 400 migrants onboard that had ran out of fuel, according to the volunteer-run service Alarm Phone. The Coast Guard told CNN later Monday that it is also escorting another vessel carrying 800 migrants.
“Due to the prohibitive sea conditions, the Peluso ship, the Diciotti ship and the Coast Guard patrol boats are escorting the two units, in difficulty since yesterday, with migrants on board,” the Coast Guard said on Twitter. “The ships, carrying 400 and 800 migrants, got into trouble in rough seas on Monday.”
Alarm Phone said in a tweet earlier that it had spoken to passengers at 10.56 a.m. local time (4.56 a.m. ET), describing the situation on board as “dramatic,” with the boat starting to leak. “They report several medical emergencies, water filling the vessel and no fuel left. We have informed the authorities,” Alarm phone said.
The coast guard is traveling next to the boat en route to Italy because an escort is “safer” than attempting to rescue those on board in poor weather, said Felix Weiss, a spokesman for Sea-Watch International, a German organization that runs search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean. Read More…
