The rescue operation of a migrant boat turned tragic off the coast of Libya on Sunday March 12. A shipwreck occurred while a cargo ship sailing in the area attempted to rescue them.

“During the rescue operations, the boat turned over in full transfer of the migrants: seventeen people were rescued, but about thirty others are missing”, announced the Italian coast guard.

This weekend, NGOs reported that a boat carrying 47 people was drifting about 100 kilometers from the Libyan coast. The rescue organization Alarm Phone, which runs a hotline for migrants in distress, was the first on Sunday to report that migrants had drowned. In a press release, the coastguard specifies that Alarm Phone alerted the Rome Relief Coordination Center on Saturday of the presence of this boat in distress, as well as the Maltese and Libyan authorities.

Searches by boats and planes to find the missing

A merchant vessel heading for the migrant boat reported difficulty in carrying out a rescue due to bad weather. Meanwhile, Libyan authorities, responsible for search and rescue efforts in the area, reported “lack of boat availability” and requested assistance from Rome, which dispatched three more merchant vessels to the area. towards the boat of the migrants, continues the press release.

“The migrant transfer operations began at first light” on Sunday when the vessel Froland arrived on site, but the migrant boat capsized during the operation, according to the Coast Guard. After picking up seventeen migrants, the Froland headed for Malta to disembark two people in need of urgent medical attention. Cargo boats are still on site to try to find missing people, with the assistance of two Frontex planes.

“The rescue operation took place outside the Italian search and rescue (SAR) zone, registering the inactivity of the other national maritime and rescue coordination centers involved in the area,” the coast guard said. .

“Scary Waves”

Sea-Watch, a German NGO, tweeted on Saturday that its surveillance plane had spotted the migrant boat which was “dangerously overloaded and in frightening waves”. A little later, she had reported on the deterioration of the weather conditions and assured that “Tripoli claims not to be able to send a patrol”. Sunday morning, Alarm Phone indicated that it had lost contact with the boat.

This new tragedy comes two weeks after the sinking, off Calabria (southern Italy), of a boat carrying some 180 people. It left 76 people dead and bodies continue to wash up on the shore every day. Italian justice has opened an investigation into this tragedy, the maritime authorities being suspected of not having reacted quickly enough to reports of the presence of an overloaded ship in the area. This shipwreck shocked Italy and sparked strong criticism of the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni elected on an anti-migrant line.

According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, 17,592 people have landed since January 1 in Italy, compared to 5,976 over the same period in 2022 and 5,995 in 2021, almost triple. The number of migrant arrivals via the Central Mediterranean route jumped 116% in January and February compared to 2022, according to Frontex.

More than 1,300 migrants on board overloaded boats were rescued on Saturday by the Italian coast guard.