The Geo Barents ship belonging to the France-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Doctors Without Borders (MSF) rescued 440 irregular migrants in distress in the international waters of the Mediterranean off the coast of Malta.
In the post made on MSF’s Twitter accounts, it was stated that as a result of the call made yesterday by the civil organization called “Alarm Phone”, which announced the calls for help from migrants in the Mediterranean, on social media, Geo Barents, who went to the north to avoid the stormy weather, was able to reach the area where the migrant boat is located after a 10-hour journey.
It was stated that the Geo Barents crew could not carry out the rescue operation at the first stage due to adverse conditions and only distributed life jackets to the immigrants, and then they rescued a total of 440 people, including 30 children and 8 women, with an operation that lasted more than 11 hours.
Irregular migration problem in the Central Mediterranean
In the irregular migration influx to Europe, the Central Mediterranean route stands out as one of the routes where intense mobility has been observed in recent years.
On this route, European non-governmental organizations usually rescue irregular migrants who call for help at sea, rather than European government officials. These NGOs have difficulties in evacuating the irregular migrants they rescue from time to time due to the EU member states’ failure to provide a “safe haven”.
The first place where immigrants who can cross the Mediterranean or are rescued by their own means set foot in Europe is Lampedusa Island, which is the closest land part of Italy to North Africa.
A large number of irregular migrants die each year while trying to cross the Mediterranean, due to the boat capsizing or the lack of air and water due to overcrowding on the boats.
The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of News2Sea.
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