https://arab.news/yxrpz
- 350 migrants rescued by MV Louise Michel transferred to the humanitarian rescue boat Sea-Watch 4
JEDDAH: Three migrants seeking refuge in Europe died on Sunday when a fire broke out on their boat just off the southern coast of Italy.
Another five refugees were injured in the fire, and taken to hospital in the Italian port city of Crotone.
The number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe this year has almost doubled compared with last year, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR — up 91 percent to more than 14,000 from January to July.
There is a growing crisis on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where a fishing boat carrying nearly 370 migrants from North Africa landed early on Sunday.
About 30 other small boats carrying about 500 migrants, mostly from the Tunisian coast, had already reached the island since Friday.
“Lampedusa can no longer cope with this situation,” Mayor Toto Martello said.
“Either the government takes immediate decisions or the whole island will go on strike. We can’t manage the emergency and the situation is now really unsustainable.”
The migrants who landed on Sunday had temperature checks for coronavirus before they were taken to an emergency reception center on the island that now houses about 1,160 people, 10 times its maximum capacity.
“If a fishing boat of this size with hundreds of people arrives here and nobody notices it, it means that there are no controls in the Mediterranean,” Martello said.
“But what are the military vessels doing? We are not at war, why not use them for security interventions at sea and to transfer migrants?”
Meanwhile, the 150 remaining migrants on the rescue ship Louise Michel, which is funded by the British street artist Banksy, were transferred early on Sunday to the humanitarian rescue boat Sea-Watch 4.
The Louise Michel issued distress calls on Saturday as it drifted at sea. The Sea-Watch 4 now has about 350 people on board and is looking for a port.