At 22.05h CEST the Alarm Phone was contacted by a boat in distress off Libya. The 90 people have seen multiple aircrafts and a military helicopter nearby. Based on their description of the boat we believe it is the same boat spotted by #Moonbird earlier.
Since this morning authorities are informed about this distress case. An @ItalianNavy vessel monitored the situation closely but did not render assistance. We condemn these repeated acts of non-assistance & demand the immediate launch of an adequate rescue operation.
The situation on board is deteriorating. At 23.47h the people told us that one of the tubes of the rubber boat burst. Water is entering the boat. They have no fuel left and cannot move. They say they won't survive if they are out at sea the whole night.
At 00.13h we spoke to them again. They're scared the children will die of hypothermia. There are 15 children, the youngest 9-months old. They moved the children to the corner of the boat where there is less water. One of the 20 women is pregnant & very sick. Do not let them die!
This is why the Mediterranean is the deadliest border in the world! @guardiacostiera was informed about this boat already at 10.23h CEST and yet no rescue has taken place. This policy of non-assistance has to end. Our last contact to the boat was at 00.47h – they are panicking.
04.50h CEST: the approximately 90 people are still suffering in great distress. The sun is rising in the central Mediterranean but they can now see that nobody is near them, they are still completely alone at sea with no rescue in sight @Refugees
06.37h: The people on the boat reached out to us once more. They have again spotted a helicopter circling above them but they cannot see any maritime assets. They ask us if we know of rescue vessels approaching them but we have to say that we don't know of any. #safepassage
08.15h: The people just told us that they can see a large boat in the distance. It might be the cargo vessel #Marmorotai. Rescue is urgent and we hope that the vessel in vicinity will live up to maritime conventions and carry out a #SAR operation.
#DefendSolidarity
According to the #migrants, a 5-year-old girl has died on board. They also told us at 8.25h that the helicopter was still there and that the boat they saw was not a cargo but a military boat. We are quite certain it is an @ItalianNavy vessel, the P490. It has to rescue NOW!
9.05h: We spoke to the people and though the phone connection was very bad we understood that a rescue operation is launched by the @ItalianNavy, though this is not confirmed by Italian authorities yet. If true, a rescue was launched 24 hours after authorities were first alerted.
The @ItalianNavy vessel P490 had monitored the boat in distress yesterday already & could have rescued them nearly a day ago. This act of #non-assistance risked the lives of 90 people. Now these survivors have to be brought to a port of safety in #Italy! @Refugees #safepassage
There's lots of speculation about a tweet in which we passed on what the #migrants told us: that a 5-year-old girl died. We never confirmed this as fact & we hope it is not true. Nobody needs to have died for this to be a scandal where 90 ppl were left at risk for over 23 hours.
According to new testimonies of the survivors who had called us in distress on May 29, some of their companions died during the journey. #Italy had consciously delayed the rescue of this boat as we have documented.
ilsecoloxix.it/genova/2019/06…
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