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Escape to Europe: Dozens of people die in boat accidents on the Mediterranean

2021-12-26T17:20:34.181Z


During the Christmas days, too, many people made the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean to Europe. Dozens were killed in boat accidents.


Enlarge image

Rescuers from the "Sea-Watch 3" will help boat refugees in the Mediterranean on December 25, 2021

Photo: Max Brugger / dpa

At present, many migrants are again daring the life-threatening crossing from Libya to Europe.

Dozens of people were killed around the Christmas holidays.

28 bodies washed up on the Libyan coast on Sunday.

When exactly they died was initially unclear.

"The state of decay of the corpses suggests that the shipwreck occurred several days ago," said an official.

A further increase in the number of deaths is to be expected.

According to the representative of the authorities, three survivors of the boat accident were rescued by employees of the Libyan Red Cross.

On Christmas Eve, the Greek coast guard recovered 27 bodies after two boat accidents in the Aegean Sea.

The crew of the rescue ship "Sea-Watch 3", which took in 350 people within 30 hours, also reported numerous emergencies at sea.

By Friday evening, the Greek coast guard had recovered 16 bodies, including three women and a baby, near the Cycladic island of Paros.

63 people were saved after the boat capsized and sank.

Just hours before the boat accident off Paros, a boat ran aground near the island of Andikythira, northwest of Crete, and eleven bodies were recovered.

According to the authorities, 90 people who were able to save themselves on a small island north of Andikythira were brought to safety.

According to the information, 27 children and 11 women are among the rescued.

The Coast Guard used patrol boats and an airplane to search for survivors during the holidays, and private ships also took part in the search.

According to the coast guard on Saturday, two of the people discovered on Andikythira were arrested.

They are therefore suspected of people smuggling.

Dozens of people saved off the Tunisian coast

On Saturday, Tunisia's navy rescued 44 people who had left Libya to go to Italy.

Most of them came from Syria and Mali, according to the Tunisian Red Crescent.

The people had called for help from their broken boat off the coast of the city of Zarzis in the south of the country.

People should come to emergency shelters in Tunisia.

However, these are very overcrowded.

In recent years, Libya, a country of civil war, has become the most important transit country for migrants who want to come to Europe via the Mediterranean.

According to human rights activists, migrants in Libya are repeatedly exposed to violence, extortion and forced labor.

The UNHCR estimates that between January and November of this year more than 2,500 migrants died while sailing to Europe.

Since 2015, almost a million people, mainly civil war refugees from Syria, have reached the Greek islands from Turkey and thus the EU.

mmq / AFP / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-12-26

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