A vessel with 400 migrants and refugees onboard including pregnant women and children, departed from Tobruk, Libya, is adrift in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Malta for five days and it awaits rescue from Italian coastguard. A merchant vessel has supplied fuel & water to the boat but was denied by Malta authorities to save the prople onboard. The boat has not a captain. It is struggling with 1.5m waves, and is in a huge danger. The boat’s hull had filled with water. A second boat with migrants is in the area.
The people onboard are in panic. A total of 1.200 migrants are in danger. The Italian coastguard sent Dicotti ,a military ship, and others vwssels to rescue the people onboard, “only once the boat reached their SAR region”. The Central Mediterranean route is described by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as the most dangerous migration route in the world but people try it. More than 1,700 migrants had arrived on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa in the last 48 hours.
