The crew of a sailing boat, Safira, operated by the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, brought a total of 28 migrants to shore on April 7 on the Italian island of Lampedusa, off Sicily. The crew said they also sighted a corpse in the water, but were unable to recover it.
The 28 people rescued on April 6 by the crew of the Safira sailing boat, operated by Mediterranea Saving Humans disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa at 1:15 am on April 7.
"The rescue happened around 4PM on Sunday [April 6,] in international waters, in the Maltese and Tunisian search and rescue area 35 miles southwest of the Pelagic Islands," the NGO said in a statement in Italian.
"Shortly before, at 3:30pm, the Safira crew had seen the boat in distress, which had not previously been reported, thanks to the observation from the deck using binoculars while it was monitoring the area since dawn."
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12 unaccompanied minors fleeing Libya
The NGO's rescue team "assisted the people on the overcrowded vessel, providing all of them with life vests and contacting the Maltese authorities, requesting intervention," the statement continued.
"As often happens, they initially did not respond to the calls and then refused to intervene. At this point our rescue team, after the engine of the vessel in distress caught fire, evacuated the people and brought them onboard the Safira."
The people told the crew they had left Sabratha on the Libyan coast 52 hours previously. Those rescued were "exhausted with serious dehydration issues due to the lengthy time at sea."
The migrants rescued are of Sudanese, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Bangladeshi origins and include 12 unaccompanied minors, all of whom were fleeing Libya, stated the NGO.
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Corpse sighted at sea but recovery attempt failed
Over the weekend, the NGO said around 600 migrants arrived on Lampedusa from about 30 different disembarkation operations on Saturday "and about 830 people on Sunday as of midnight."
"Unfortunately, among the makeshift vessels that left from Libya and Tunisia, a few did not make it: at 8.50 AM on Sunday (April 6), the crew of the Safira noted several yellow planks floating on the water, seemingly the remains of a shipwreck. A few minutes later, our crew sighted among the waves a lifeless body, that of a Black man, apparently between 15 and 25 years old who was wearing a beige jacket," the NGO continued.
The crew said they had changed course to try and recover the corpse, "in order to identify it and be able to give it a decent burial. However, when our team got near, the corpse was swallowed by the currents and disappeared at sea."