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Spanish charity rescues 117 migrants sailing from Libya

Last week’s shipwreck off Greece, killing at least 78 among hundreds packed onto a fishing boat, has shone a light once again on the deaths of thousands of migrants each year

A migrant who survived the capsizing of a vessel in Greece is transported to a waiting ambulance in Kalamata, on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Hundreds are feared to be dead after their fishing boat capsized about 50 miles off the coast of Greece. Photograph: Eirini Vourloumis/The New York Times

Sat Jun 17 2023 - 15:48

Spanish charity Open Arms said it rescued 117 migrants on Saturday crowded onto a precarious wooden boat from Libya in the latest such perilous crossing over the Mediterranean sea.

Last week's shipwreck off Greece, killing at least 78 among hundreds packed onto a fishing boat, has shone a light once again on the deaths of thousands of migrants each year fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.

Open Arms said in a statement that it had picked up 117 people on Saturday, including 25 women and a three-year-old boy, mainly from Eritrea, Sudan and Libya.

The rescue operation took place in international waters 30km off the coast of Libya after the boat left the port of Sabratha under darkness at 0100 GMT, according to the statement and a spokesperson for the charity.

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All the passengers were receiving a medical assessment on board the Open Arms vessel, the charity said, without giving more details on where they would be taken.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that 12 Pakistanis were among survivors from a boat packed with migrants that capsized off the coast of Greece.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the government was unable so far to verify the number of Pakistanis who died, or their identities.

People seeking missing relatives were urged to share with the ministry identity documents and DNA reports from authenticated laboratories, she said.

The death toll in Wednesday’s disaster could run to many hundreds as witness accounts suggested that between 400 and 750 people had packed the fishing boat that sank about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern Greek town of Pylos.

Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies of the dead were brought ashore in the immediate aftermath. Hopes were fading of finding any more people alive.

Most of the people on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, Greek government officials have said. - Reuters

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023

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