Malta-based search and rescue charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) has helped rescue 1,441 people in just 12 days during back-to-back sea rescues from unseaworthy boats in the central Mediterranean Sea, the organisation said yesterday.
Since the start of its season on 2 May, MOAS has carried out six separate rescues, providing shelter and lifejackets to 106 children, 211 women and 1,124 men on board the 40-metre vessel MY Phoenix.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Doctors without Borders) provided post-rescue assistance, including medical care.
The vessel was due to return to its home base in Malta for restocking last Thursday, 14 May, but the crew decided to stay at sea as it detected an aging wooden boat with 561 people on board, including 60 children. Hundreds of people, mostly from Eritrea, were at risk of suffocation - crammed down below the deck of the 18-metre wooden boat.
Speaking about the latest rescue, MOAS founder and crew member Christopher Catrambone said: "Our search and rescue crew has never seen anything like it. People just kept coming up from the hold in an endless stream of humanity.
"Some of them told us terrible stories of persecution and escape. These people have no freedom. They have nothing," he said, adding that rescued migrants reported poor conditions and treatment during their time spent in Libya.
As part of the operation, MY Phoenix cooperated fully with Rome's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and other vessels in the area, transferring a number of migrants to merchant vessels and also to the British warship HMS Bulwark. In this case, the Phoenix transferred 188 people with 15 different nationalities who had been rescued earlier from two separate dinghies.
MY Phoenix is currently on its way to Messina to disembark 407 people who are currently receiving medical attention.
The MSF team onboard reports that the health of people is generally good, due to them being rescued early in their journey. This year, the Phoenix is operating close to the Libyan coast and flying two Schiebel Camcopter S-100 drones inside Libyan airspace, allowing MOAS to locate and rescue people sooner.
The largest rescue ever carried out by the Phoenix came just one day after the European Commission presented the European Agenda on Migration with new proposals to address the migration crisis in the Mediterranean.
Solutions include the shared responsibility for asylum seekers across all member states and preventing deaths at sea.
"We are pleased the EU has decided to take immediate actions to save lives," said MOAS director Brig. (Retd) Martin Xuereb.
"We are saving around 100 people every day, which is twice the rate we experienced last year when we were at sea for 60 days between August and October. Every additional asset is appreciated in this humanitarian crisis," he added.
Close to 3,600 migrants were rescued from overcrowded boats sailing from Africa to Europe over the previous 48 hours, Italian officials said on Thursday. Relatively calm sea conditions typically encourage more crossings.
Mohamed, a 23-year-old from Somalia, shared his harrowing tale: "On the boat it was very difficult. There was no space and no captain who knew how to drive the boat. People got really scared, especially when the waves were big. We were not even sure of the direction we needed to take. The smugglers pointed in a direction and told us to keep going that way."
So far this year alone, 1,826 migrants are thought to have died while crossing the Mediterranean. However, the statistics are unreliable as many of those who made the attempt have vanished, according to new research released by VU University Amsterdam early this week.
"I'm lucky to have been saved. I have been born a second time," said one man from Eritrea.
A 25-year-old man, also from Eritrea, said he had been travelling alone for about seven months. "I passed through Ethiopia and Sudan before getting to Libya where I was caught and put into a camp. I spent one month in the camp. It was there that I met the people that put us on a boat to Italy."
The surge in migrants crossing the Mediterranean has prompted the EU Security Council to draft a resolution that would allow European countries to use military force to seize suspected smuggling ships on the high seas or in Libya's territorial waters. The resolution will be discussed during the EU Ministers' talks tomorrow, 18 May.
MOAS is scheduled to continue its humanitarian work until October and is seeking additional funding so that the crew may pursue a year-long mission. Donations can be made on www.moas.eu