500 people in distress on a boat

In the past 36 hours (as of 6pm on March 9), the Tunisian Coast Guard has stopped 42 attempts at irregular migration, and rescued 1,509 people on boats in distress off Tunisian territorial waters. This was announced by a spokesperson for the Tunisian National Guard on Facebook, explaining that as many as 28 departures were banned yesterday alone. Of the 1,509 rescued migrants, 1,488 were found to be from various sub-Saharan African countries and 21 from Tunisia. In a shipwreck yesterday off the coast of Sfax, 14 bodies of people from various sub-Saharan African countries were found. During the operations, agents have confiscated more than 30 marine engines and a large number of ironclads, the warrant continues.

“The alarm phone is in contact with about 500 people on a boat that left #Libya, calling us from the Italian SAR. We have notified the appropriate authorities. Don’t waste time: send help right away! he writes on Twitter Alarm Phone, the phone service that takes requests for help in the Mediterranean.

The emergency life support vessel entered the port of Brindisi, which on the night between 6 and 7 March rescued 105 migrants on a dinghy in distress in international waters off Libya. Among them are 59 men and 16 women – one of whom is seven months pregnant – and 24 unaccompanied minors and 6 minors. The youngest is two years old. They came from Nigeria, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry, Sudan, Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Chad, Eritrea, Burkina Faso. The boat they were in, a 12-metre canoe that fed on water and was at the mercy of the waves because it had run out of fuel, left Zuwara, Libya, at 2pm on 6 March. According to reports from Commander Domenico Pugliese, all of the rescued people are in good condition, even if many of them “have the marks of their time in Libya on their bodies.”

Once again, there is a tragedy fraught with dangers off the coast of Lampedusa: a small boat with 42 migrants on board, including 5 women and a minor, sank yesterday evening in the Italian waters of Saar. The crew of a Tunisian fishing boat provided first aid. When the Coast Guard picked up an SOS and retrieved the survivors, the small boat had already sunk. Many of the migrants, originally from Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria, were taken to the clinic because they were suffering from severe hypothermia. Survivors said they were not missing and left Sfax, Tunisia, on Wednesday.

A total of 1,869 migrants arrived in Lampedusa yesterday, with 41 boats rescued in the waters in front of the island or in the Saar area by boats of the Coast Guard and the Guardia di Finanza. A record never achieved before. Two small boats, carrying 46 and 41 migrants, were able to land directly on land between Gitegia Beach and a nearby bay. Since midnight, 14 more landings have been recorded, with about 605 migrants. At the Contrada Imbricola hotspot, where 750 guests were transported yesterday, there are currently more than 3,000 migrants.