A rescue organization that monitors migrant boats in the Mediterranean said on Sunday March 12 that dozens of people who were on a boat in distress, which it earlier reported to Italian authorities, had drowned.
Alarm Phone, which runs a hotline for migrants in distress, tweeted that it had alerted Italian authorities early on Saturday to an "
urgent distress situation
" from a boat northwest of the Libyan city Benghazi.
“
We are shocked.
According to different sources, dozens of people who were on this boat in distress drowned
,” she announced on Sunday.
AFP was not able to immediately confirm this information.
Nearby Merchant Ships
This new tragedy, if confirmed, comes two weeks after a shipwreck off Calabria, southern Italy, which left 76 people dead.
Justice has opened an investigation into this tragedy, the maritime authorities being suspected of not having reacted quickly enough to reports of the presence of an overloaded ship in the area.
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This shipwreck shocked Italy and sparked strong criticism of the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni elected on an anti-migrant line.
On Sunday morning, Alarm Phone tweeted that three merchant vessels were in the vicinity of the stricken boat, but added that it was unsure if a rescue operation had been launched, having lost contact with the distressed boat.
An earlier tweet from Alarm Phone said one of the vessels, the Basilis L, was watching the boat as it waited for the Libyan Coast Guard to arrive, "
to force people back to Libya from where they tried to s 'escape
'.
SeaWatch, a German NGO, tweeted on Saturday that its surveillance plane had spotted the migrant boat which was "
dangerously overloaded and in frightening waves
".
Nearby was "
a merchant ship which had been ordered by the Relief Coordination Center in Rome to coordinate with the Libyan Coast Guard
," the NGO said.
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About two hours later on Saturday, SeaWatch tweeted again: “
As the weather conditions deteriorate and make the intervention difficult, Tripoli says it is unable to send a patrol boat.
In the past, the Italian authorities have often coordinated a rescue in this area.
We ask that the same be done, in order to avoid further deaths
”.