Italian coast guard rescues 1,000+ migrants in central Mediterranean

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
27 Aug 2022 11:11

Right-wing parties are calling for an end to those rescue missions.

Ocean Viking crew rescue migrants at sea (SOS Méditerranee)

The Italian Coast Guard has announced that it has saved more than 1,000 migrants and brought them to Sicily from the central Mediterranean Sea.

Nearly 50,000 migrants have reached Italy this year, according to data from the Italian Interior Ministry dated August 15. Data indicates that Bangladesh, Egypt, and Tunisia nationals account for more than half of all arrivals. Furthermore, the data showed that many of the migrants arriving in Italy proceed to other EU nations.

More than a thousand migrants from the central Mediterranean Sea have been transported to Sicily, according to the Italian Coast Guard.

SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that the Ocean Viking rescue vessel saved the lives of 41 individuals who were on a boat in trouble.

In another rescue mission, DPA news reported that two coast guard ships carrying roughly 350 and 250 individuals, respectively, reportedly arrived at the ports of Pozzallo on the southern point of Sicily and Porto Empedocle close to Agrigento.

During the same time period, 250 of the 650 immigrants mentioned by the news service ANSA arrived at Porto Empedocle.

On August 24, a boat carrying 451 people mostly migrants from Sudan, Egypt, and Syria, landed in Catanzaro Lido, southern Italy.

“There is a legal duty to bring them to safety, to take them in and provide for their first needs,” Catanzaro Lido mayor Nicola Fiorita posted on his Facebook page.

The private aid organization SOS Méditerranee revealed on August 25 via its Twitter account that it rescued 41 people from a sinking boat on August 24 and brought them aboard its Ocean Viking search-and-rescue (SAR).

📷 The #Ocean Viking rescued 119 migrants and refugees in the Central Med yesterday evening.

Earlier on Thursday, they rescued 40 people from a boat off Libya.

The rescue ship now has more than 200 rescued people on board, according to @SOSMedIntl, which operates the ship. pic.twitter.com/v7GbhTeL4z
— InfoMigrants (@InfoMigrants) August 26, 2022

Furthermore, on August 21, Doctors without Borders (MSF) declared that 106 migrants were rescued on the same day.

According to the Italian Interior Ministry, 50,000 indicates that the number is considerably higher than it was during the same time period in 2021 when it was at about 34,000. This topic has been prominent in the current Italian election campaigns.

Right-wing parties have been attempting to push for populist rhetoric against the search and rescue (SAR) with the goal of ending them and stopping the arrival of migrants to Europe, through Italy.