Migrants, 38 victims in two shipwrecks within a few hours
The first shipwreck in the Aegean Sea, off the Turkish coast. The second 85 miles off Lampedusa
Two barges loaded with migrants were wrecked today, Wednesday 1 April, within a few hours. Thirty-eight victims in total. This year, according to the United Nations International Organisation for Migration, 624 migrants have died or missed in the central Mediterranean.
The Shipwreck in the Aegean Sea
The first shipwreck, in order of time, occurred in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish coast. At least 39 migrants of Afghan origin were travelling on a rubber dinghy: 18 were found dead, while 21 were rescued. Among those rescued, one later died in hospital, bringing the number of victims to 19. Among them, also an infant. The Turkish coast guard command reported that the boat ignored repeated warnings to stop and attempted to escape at full speed. It then started taking on water and eventually capsized off the town of Bodrum.
"Operations to ascertain the fate of the missing and search and rescue activities continue," the Turkish coast guard said. The search continues for at least one other person whose whereabouts were lost.
The shipwreck in Lampedusa
There are 19 dead from the latest shipwreck off Lampedusa. Last night, at around 3am, a Coast Guard patrol boat rescued a boat in difficulty, about 85 miles from the island, in the Libyan Sea area, loaded with migrants. There were already some lifeless bodies on board, who died of hypothermia and fuel inhalation, and others died during transport to the island. On the Favarolo Pier arrived 19 bodies and 58 survivors, 5 of them in serious condition. Among them was a child. The injured were admitted to the Lampedusa Outpatient Clinic while the other survivors were transferred to the hotspot in contrada Imbriacola.
Saved one-year-old boy
Among the migrants rescued in the shipwreck off Lampedusa was a one-year-old child. He was in the arms of a woman, who had taken him with her and held him tightly, trying to keep him warm even during the journey on the patrol boat that brought the refugees from the Libyan Sar area to the largest of the Pelagie islands. "What will happen to him now?" repeated the woman, according to whom the mother of the baby died in the shipwreck.
