On Wednesday (April 10), the Italian coast guard carried out two rescues in the Central Mediterranean. A total of 59 people were brought to shore. The bodies of nine people were also found.

One of the rescues, stated the Italian coast guard in a press release, took place about 30 miles south-east of Lampedusa in the Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. The Maltese authorities asked the Italian coast guard to help. Here they picked up 22 migrants from a boat, but also recovered "nine dead bodies, including the body of a small girl."

"The rescue was particularly complex because of adverse weather conditions," stated the coast guard, saying the waves were at least 2.5 meters high and very rough. The migrants were suffering from "severe hypothermia" and were taken to Lampedusa, stated the coast guard.

Aircraft helps in search for missing

An Italian air craft was also dispatched to the area, at the request of the Maltese authorities, said the coast guard, to search the area for anyone potentially still missing from that shipwreck.

Earlier that day, the Italian coast guard also participated in the rescue of 37 migrants. A video shows how rough the Mediterranean was at the time of the rescue, with driving rain, winds and large waves complicating the transfer of migrants from their dinghy to the coast guard ship.

The migrants on this boat were drifting on the rough seas, stated the coast guard. The boat they had been traveling on was just seven meters long and made of wood, stated the coast guard. Everyone on board was transferred safely to Lampedusa, stated the coast guard, providing video clips of the rescue.

According to data from the Italian Interior Ministry, a total of 316 migrants arrived on Italian shores on April 10. This brings the number who have arrived since the beginning of the year by small boat in Italy to over 16,000. The data was last updated early on April 11.

Disembarkations

Two private rescue ships, operated by the organizations SOS Mediterranee and the NGO Emergency, also disembarked migrants they had rescued in the last week. The Ocean Viking ship, operated by SOS Mediterranee, docked in the Italian port of Livorno on April 10 to disembark 55 people.

The crew of the Ocean Viking commented on their X page (formerly known as Twitter) on April 10 that their rescue of 55 migrants four days ago was now "complete” since they had finally reached a place of safety in Livorno. The crew said they "wished them well and hope they get the necessary care after all the suffering they endured in Libya."

The crew of the medical humanitarian NGO Emergency, which operates the ship Life Support, also disembarked the migrants they had rescued in the Mediterranean on April 5. 202 people left the Life Support ship in the Italian port of Ravenna on April 10.

15 women and 18 minors were among those rescued, and according to a press release from Emergency, the migrants came originally from "Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Pakistan, Palestine and Syria."

'As soon as I arrived in Libya, I was kidnapped and taken to prison'

One of those on board, a 35-year-old from Bangladesh told the crew: "My father died seven years ago. My mother is very ill, she is 70 years old. She needs very expensive medical treatment and I could not afford it with my job in Bangladesh." That is why, the man explained, he "decided to go to Libya where I wanted to work."

However, "as soon as I arrived, the Libyan militias kidnapped me and took me to prison.” The man said he had to pay “thousands of dollars to be free. Almost every fortnight, they moved us from one prison to another. They are horrible places, they would feed us every two or three days. Every night they beat us to get our families to send more money. My mother had to sell her house to allow me to get out of that place."

Once his family had paid the ransom, some men "came to get me. Instead of freeing me, they decided to put me on the boat and cross the Mediterranean. I do not know why. They covered my eyes and loaded me onto a car. I did not know where we were going. When they took off the blindfold, we were on the beach in Zawiya. They put us on a boat that was very small for the number of people we were. If you refused to get on, they threatened you with guns."

The man told the Emergency crew that he had been placed in the inner hold and "saw almost nothing of the journey" until they were picked up by the crew of the Life Support. He explained that "the smell of petrol was unbearable and the position I had to hold was very painful." Once on board the Life Support, the man said he couldn’t wait to call his family and let them know that he is "ok and that I am no longer in Libya."

'Overcrowded and precarious conditions'

The man, explained Emergency in a press release, was on board one of two different boats, 10 and 12 meters long that departed from Sabratha and Zawiya in Libya. The Emergency staff said both boats were "overcrowded and in precarious conditions" when they were detected by radar. After the rescues, the crew of the Life Support had to sail for a further four days to reach Ravenna, the port designated for disembarkation by the Italian authorities.

Another man from Syria, who spoke to Emergency after being rescued, said that he had been really scared during the journey. He said the boat was so overcrowded they had to "squat on each other’s legs." He also said water had been "coming in from the bottom of the boat," and those on board had cut some bottles to create a makeshift bail to get rid of some of the water. He said "we did this for hours to make sure we didn’t sink. We were exhausted."

This man said he had left Syria in 2016 and had previously been working in Lebanon as a delivery boy in a restaurant, sending money to his parents when he could. But he said, "I had to leave Lebanon because the people who were hosting me had to leave the country and I had nowhere else to stay."

He said the economic crisis in Lebanon had also contributed to his decision to go. Lebanon "is not the right place to try to build a new life." The young man said he was traveling with "my older brother and his young son, my nephew." He said they hoped to build a "new life in Europe" and to "live in freedom."