The ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms rescued 294 people who were aboard a wooden barge in the central Mediterranean on Sunday and is now carrying 372 people rescued from the Mediterranean, the organisation reported.
The last rescue was that of a barge with 294 people, including 43 women and 60 children, who had been at sea for 4 days and most of them “showed obvious symptoms of dehydration,” reported the founder of the NGO, Óscar Camps.
A few hours earlier, the Open Arms had rescued 59 people, including 6 children, who had abandoned their boat and taken refuge in an oil rig.
Among them there was also a corpse, reported the NGO, which requested the urgent evacuation of some of the people due to their medical problems.
Last Friday, the Open Arms1 had rescued another boat with 19 people on board, thus carrying 372 migrants.
In the central Mediterranean, Italy is also waiting to grant a port to the humanitarian ship SOS Humanity, which sails with 415 other rescued people “who urgently need a safe port. Almost half (192) are under the age of 18, of which 113 are unaccompanied minors.
On Saturday the Sea Watch 3 ship of the German NGO of the same name arrived at the port of Reggio Calabria with 428 rescued passengers, after a state of necessity was declared on Friday due to the situation on board.
So far this year, about 66,323 people have arrived on Italian shores, compared to 43,043 in the same period of 2021, according to updated data from the Ministry of the Interior.
