On Sunday (May 7), the German private rescue organization Seebrücke tweeted that the two ships Nadir and Resqship saved a total of 234 migrants from six different boats within five hours between Friday night and Saturday (May 6).

Three people died during, or just before, one of the rescues, said the organization. "The situation in the Mediterranean remains dramatic," tweeted Seebrücke.

According to the crew of the Resqship, three Tunisian fishing boats were already helping and had brought the migrants on board their ship when the NGO crew arrived to help the first boat. For three people "help had come too late," and they had already drowned.

The survivors from this ship were taken by the Italian coast guard to the first reception center on Lampedusa which has reportedly been over capacity for several weeks.

The incident occurred south-east of the island of Lampesdusa, reported the French news agency Agence France Presse AFP. The agency said that it was presumed the migrants had set off from the Tunisian city of Sfax since the point where their boat got into trouble was half-way on the route from Sfax to Lampedusa.

Also read: Italy, long journeys to disembark migrants

Additional rescues, high waves

"In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Nadir [private rescue ship] came across an over-filled wooden boat with two decks and 130 people on board. We had been told about the boat by the organization Alarm Phone [the organization that monitors migrant journeys towards Europe]. The people on board had been at sea for at least three days, and their motor had ceased working," explained the crew of the private rescue ship Resqship.

In a series of tweets, the organization explained that there were at least 15 children among those rescued and that the majority of the migrants they picked up came from Mali and Syria.

"Our Rhib-crew picked them out of the water and took them back to the boat," explained one of the tweets. "When the Italian coast guard arrived, things got a bit hectic. Some of the people fell into the water or got caught between the boats."

The height of the waves as well as the fact that there were two decks on one of the boats, made the situation "even more dangerous," stated the organization Resqship in another tweet. "This made the people panic, and in that panic and confusion, some of them jumped into the water, hoping to swim to the Nadir," explained the charity.

Also during one of the rescues, the crew of the Nadir had to take three migrants facing a "medical emergency" on board the ship to provide first aid. These three were later taken by the Italian coast guard and taken to safety on land.

Arrivals on Italian shores

The crew of the Resqship said that "since the beginning of the year, we have counted at least 850 deaths and missing in the Mediterranean." They added that "behind every life is a face, a story, friends and family," and that their thoughts went out to the survivors and relatives of those who died.

The Italian Interior Ministry updates the numbers of migrants arriving by sea to Italy regularly. The last update was on May 5 and showed that since the beginning of 2023, 42,449 had arrived. This is almost four times the numbers that arrived in 2022 during the same period and is more than four times the numbers who arrived in 2021 between January and May 5.

According to reports by private rescue charities and European media, around 1,000 additional migrants made it to Italy over the weekend, either brought in by the coast guard or because they arrived under their own steam.

With AFP, EPD

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