Marseille, France:
Rescue ships picked up more than 700 men and women attempting to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels this weekend, primarily off the coasts of Libya and Malta, a migrant help group mentioned Sunday.
The most up-to-date figures came as UN migration officials repeated their calls for a fairer mechanism to share out the duty of caring for them, rather than leaving it to the Mediterranean nations.
SOS Mediterranee mentioned that its vessel, the Ocean Viking, had carried out six separate operations in international waters considering that Saturday.
In the last such intervention, it rescued 106 men and women off the Maltese coastline soon after becoming alerted by German help group Sea-Watch, mentioned the Marseille-based organisation.
“The youngest survivor rescued in this operation is just 3 months old,” SOS Mediterranee tweeted.
Overnight Saturday to Sunday, the Ocean Viking joined vessels from Sea Watch and ResQship, a different German group, to enable 400 men and women in difficulty in the central Mediterranean, mentioned the group.
They have been rescued from a vessel that was taking in water, in what a spokesman for the organisation told AFP was a especially perilous operation.
Those who have been rescued have been shared out involving the Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch3.
Ocean Viking alone has 555 passengers on board from this weekend’s operations, such as at least 28 females, two of whom are pregnant. The organisation has however to figure out at which protected port they will be in a position to leave them.
Libya remains one of the major departure points for tens of thousands of migrants hoping to try the hazardous Mediterranean crossing, regardless of the continuing insecurity in the nation. Most of them attempt to attain the Italian coast, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) away.
Migrant Numbers ‘Totally Manageable’
Celine Schmitt, the spokesman for the UN refugee organisation’s French operation, mentioned last month there was an urgent want for an automatic program to share out the new arrivals involving nations, to guarantee them a improved reception — and not leave it to Mediterranean nations to assume sole duty.
“If we look at the Central Mediterranean, last year, there were fewer than 50,000 people who arrived,” she mentioned.
“It is totally manageable for the European population”, when you look at there are 82 million men and women about the world who have been forced to flee their houses, mentioned Schmitt.
IOM spokesman Paul Dillon took a related position last week.
“By advocating for better migration management practices, better migration governance and greater solidarity from EU member states, we can come up with a clear, safe and humane approach to this issue that begins with saving lives at sea,” he mentioned.
The Central Mediterranean crossing, involving Libya and Italy or Malta, is by far the deadliest in the world, according to figures from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Of the 1,113 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean in the initial half of this year, 930 of them have been recorded there.
Nevertheless, according to the most up-to-date IOM figures, growing numbers of migrants have attempted the crossing this year.
()