Spanish Charity saves 372 immigrants; 1 dead; requests made for Malta to provide a safe harbor
Spanish charity Open Arms rescued 372 people trying to cross the central Mediterranean to Europe in unseaworthy smugglers’ boats and recovered the body of a man who had shot by smugglers, officials said Sunday.
The Open Arms Uno rescue ship remained at sea and is looking for a safe port for the rescued people, including some who need medical attention and many who are suffering from dehydration, said Laura Lanuza, spokeswoman for Open Arms. She said they made at least two requests for a safe harbor in Malta.
In total, the ship carried out three rescues in 24 hours. In the biggest rescue, Open Arms picked up 294 people, mostly Egyptians, from an overcrowded barge in waters south of Malta in a night operation that lasted almost five hours before dawn on Sunday. Those rescued said that they had been at sea for four days.
The packed boat was spotted by volunteer pilots plying the Mediterranean for people in distress, and a photo showed its decks packed with people waving for help.
Before this, Open Arms rescued 59 immigrants from Syria, Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea, including 10 minors, from an oil platform that had reached Tunisian waters. Still in the smugglers’ flimsy boat was the wrapped body of a migrant who was shot on land by smugglers, said Lanuza.
“The smugglers forced people to take the body with them. They spent a day or so at sea, and kept the body until they were rescued,” said Lanuza.
On Saturday morning, Open Arms rescued 19 people from a rubber dinghy off Libya. They included 16 people from Syria.
An Associated Press photographer aboard the Open Arms said that during each rescue, desperate people threw themselves into the water, complicating the operation.