About a dozen dead in suspected migration accident in the Mediterranean

ADVERTISING

About a dozen suspected migrants died in a failed escape attempt in the Mediterranean on Monday, the German aid organization Resqship said.

The group wrote on Xformerly Twitter, the crew of the rescue ship “took care” of 51 people who were evacuated from the boat. “For 10 people, the rescue came too late,” the post says.

“Two of them were unconscious – they had to be freed with an axe,” the group said in an online statement.

The southern Italian island – near North Africa – is a well-known destination for human smugglingwith 127,000 migrants coming ashore last year.

Meanwhile, the Italian coast guard was searching for about 50 missing people from another ship that was shipwrecked off the country’s southern Calabrian coast.

The search and rescue mission began after a mayday call from a French boat sailing about 193 kilometers off the Italian coast, the Italian coast guard said in a statement. The area is under the jurisdiction of Greece and Italy, it added.

After reporting the half-sunken boat, rescuers were able to rescue twelve migrants from the ship, most likely from Turkey. The survivors were taken to the Calabrian port of Roccella Jonica, where they disembarked and were placed in the care of medical personnel.

One of the migrants died shortly afterwards, the coast guard said.

The Italian Coast Guard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (IMRCC) in Rome immediately diverted two nearby merchant ships to the rescue site. Forces from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex also assisted.