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A distraught mother screamed “I lost my baby” after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean, one of four tragedies that have killed more than 110 people.
In a harrowing video of the rescue operation, the mother of the six-month-old boy, Joseph, is seen writhing in pain on the floor of a boat as dozens of migrants float in the water.
She screams, “Where is my baby? I lose my baby. Find my baby, find my baby. “
The baby, from the West African nation of Guinea, was pulled from the sea off the coast of Libya but later died in a rescue boat after suffering cardiac arrest, said Spanish refugee rescue charity Proactiva Open. Arms.
More than 100 migrants died in four shipwrecks in just three days this week while trying to reach Europe.
(Image: Reuters)
An incident north of Sabratha in Libya left baby Joseph and five others dead.
His mother and a pregnant woman were among those rescued and brought to the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard.
A three-month-old girl and her mother were flown to Malta for urgent medical treatment.
A spokesperson for Emergency, which provides medical care and is working alongside Open Arms to rescue the migrants, said: “We were alerted to the situation by a plane belonging to Frontex, which was unusual and has not happened since 2016.
(Image: Reuters)
(Image: Reuters)
“The boat had gone flat and everyone on board was in the water.
“We recovered 113 people, including seven women and four children, and five dead bodies.
“Sadly, in the hours after the rescue, a six-month-old baby, already in a precarious condition, lost his life.”
In another incident, the bodies of at least 74 people were washed up on al-Khums beach.
Open Arms tweeted: “The Mediterranean is a graveyard without gravestones.”
In reaction to Joseph’s death, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, tweeted: “Every life matters. Could have been ours [baby]. “
Amnesty International said: “We remain shocked by the death of Joseph, the 6-month-old baby from Guinea Conakry who died in a shipwreck on Wednesday.
“His mother’s scream has returned tragedy at sea to headlines.”
(Image: Reuters)
Four shipwrecks this week have left more than 110 migrants dead.
Of these, at least 74 bodies were washed up on al-Khums beach.
In another incident, Doctors Without Borders helped three women who were the only survivors of a shipwreck that killed 20 people off the coast of Sorman, also in Libya.
The organization tweeted: “Rescued by local fishermen, they were in shock and terrified.
“They saw their loved ones disappear under the waves, die in front of their eyes.”
The Open Arms said Thursday it had 259 migrants, including 76 unaccompanied minors, and five bodies aboard its vessel, which was off the coast of Lampedusa.
The group said the survivors “are in poor physical and psychological health and should be able to disembark in a safe harbor as soon as possible.”
The survivors come mainly from Eritrea, Togo, Sudan, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Burundi, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast, he said.
Libya, which has not had a stable central government since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, is a major transit point for primarily African immigrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe.
At least 900 have already drowned this year while trying to cross, according to the agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Another 11,000 have been detained at sea and returned to Libya, where migrants are often detained, exploited or abused.
Italy said it had recorded nearly 31,000 refugee arrivals in 2020 so far, more than three times last year’s total.
The IOM and the UN refugee agency UNHCR have said that Libya should not be considered a safe port of return and that migrants rescued or detained at sea should not be taken there.
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