At least 40 migrants died off the coast of Italy Saturday when they were apparently suffocated below deck making the hazardous journey from Libya to Europe. Three hundred and nineteen people, including a dozen women and children, were saved, according to Massimo Tozzi, commander of the rescue patrol.
“Operation under way… many migrants saved. At least 40 dead,” the Italian navy said on Twitter.
An Italian navy vessel went to the migrants’ aid at 7 a.m. Saturday after spotting the “overcrowded” boat which had started to sink about 21 nautical miles from the Libyan coast, a reporter with Italy RaiNews TV at rescue operation headquarters said, reported the Associated Press.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the migrants that died were found below deck in the hold of the ship.
“We were faced with a very emotional scene,” Tozzi told the Italian press, as he described bodies floating on the water.
Europe faces a dire migration crisis as wars in Africa and the Middle East have raged on without an end in sight.
“The world finds itself facing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War,” EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Friday.
In 2014, the numbers of people fleeing war and persecution totaled roughly the population of the United Kingdom or the world’s 24th largest population, reaching the highest levels ever recorded, according to a United Nations report. One in every 122 people in the world is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum, the UN Refugee Agency reported.
Tens of thousands of refugees have been rescued from the Mediterranean this month alone. More than 101,700 migrants have entered Italy since the beginning of the year, with over 2,000 dying on the journey, according to statistics from the International Organization for Migration.
With the war in Syria the single largest driver of displacement since 2011, Italy and Greece have had to bear the brunt of the refugees attempting to enter Europe — and they claim they are not receiving enough support from member states.
From the Associated Press:
On the Greek island of Kos, scores of exhausted migrants, many of whom arrived on inflatable boats early Saturday, were turned away from a ferry that was due to start registering new arrivals.
“We don’t know where to go. We were told we could no longer register at the stadium” where Greek authorities were registering new arrivals this week, said Sleiman, a Syrian refugee among those gathering near the ferry in the morning.
“We are in a vicious cycle, and we keep turning round and round,” he said.
“We managed to escape drowning but now we don’t know what is going to happen. We came to Europe but honestly, it’s all fear, it’s all danger and nothing is working,” said Anas, who declined to give his second name.
The European Union should show more “solidarity” with Greece in its efforts to manage the refugee crisis, UN refugee agency spokeswoman Stella Nanou told the Associated Press. “For example, solidarity in terms of financial support to Greece, solidarity in terms of technical support, and solidarity in terms also of creating more legal ways for those people to reach Europe,” she told AFP.
