14 March 2024 , 13:31
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At least 60 migrants are dead after a dinghy sunk in the Mediterranean Sea.
Some 25 survivors were picked up by the Ocean Viking, a vessel operated by the European humanitarian group SOS Méditerranée. Those pulled form the sea told their rescuers that they had set off from Zawiya - situated on the Libyan coast - seven days before being rescued.
They said the dinghy's engine broke down three days into the trek, leaving them adrift without food or water. Victims included women and at least one child, they claimed. The Ocean Viking team spotted the struggling vessel on Wednesday and staged a medical evacuation with the help of Italian coast guards.
SOS Méditerranée added that survivors were "in very weak health condition" and were all under medical care. Two were unconscious and in critical condition, and were flown to Sicily by helicopter for further treatment. The other 23 were in serious condition, exhausted, dehydrated and with burns from fuel on board the boat.
Spokesman Francesco Creazzo said that the survivors were all male, 12 of them minors with two of those not yet teenagers. They were from Senegal, Mali and Gambia. Creazzo added that the survivors were traumatized and unable to give full accounts of what had transpired during the voyage.
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It comes after the UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says 227 people have died along the perilous central Mediterranean route this year through March 11, not counting the new reported missing and presumed dead. That's out of a total 279 deaths in the Mediterranean since January 1. A total of 19,562 people arrived in Italy using that route in the period.
It also said last year was the deadliest for migrants since records began a decade ago. At least 8,565 people are reported to have died on migration routes across the world. Humanitarian organisations often rely on accounts of survivors when pulling together the numbers of dead and missing at sea, presumed to have died.