Migrants wait in wooden boat to be rescued by German NGO migrant rescue ship
Aboard Sea-Watch 3, Mediterranean:
German NGO Sea-Watch said on Friday it had rescued nearly 100 migrants overnight in the Mediterranean, many of whom were injured, some with serious “fuel burns” – exposure to gasoline mixed with seawater. Chemical burns.
In recent months with better weather there has been an increase in migrant boats moving from Libya and Tunisia to Italy and other parts of Europe.
More than 1,100 people have died in the Mediterranean this year, fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Late on Thursday, the ship Sea-Watch 3 rescued 33 migrants from two boats that were intercepted by the Libyan coast guard in a Mediterranean search and rescue area assigned to Malta, the NGO said.
Of these, nine were minors alone, three of whom were very young children, and a woman who was seven months pregnant. According to Reuters aboard Sea-Watch 3, the rescued have come from South Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Mali.
According to the witness, several migrants were already on a coast guard ship, but they jumped into the sea when they saw the NGO’s ship approaching. All were brought aboard Sea-Watch 3 by its crew.
In a second operation at dawn on Friday, Sea-Watch 3 rescued more than 60 people from an overcrowded wooden boat inside a Libyan search and rescue area. Reuters eyewitnesses said most of the rescued were Libyans.
The migrants injured on Friday at Sea-Watch 3 included a father and son who were burned after their boat caught fire, while others were burned by fuel.
“As is often the case with such boats, several people suffered fuel burns, some of them serious burns,” Sea-Watch said in a statement.
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