Rising death toll at the gates of Europe is unacceptable, says UN

Around 40 people – including at least one newborn baby – remain missing after another migrant boat capsized in the Mediterranean last Thursday (June 22). The shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa is the latest in a series of fatal incidents in recent weeks, with hundreds of dead and missing migrants recorded in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more: Child found dead after dinghy sinks off coast of Africa, more than 30 still missing

“It is unacceptable to continue counting the dead at the gates of Europe,” the UN representative to Italy, Chiara Cardoletti, wrote on Twitter.

The boat that sunk off Lampedusa left from Sfax in Tunisia and was carrying 46 migrants from Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the UN migration agency IOM, said. 

Four men who survived the boat sinking arrived on Lampedusa late on Thursday, having been rescued by another vessel. They told the IOM that five others had been picked up by a different boat, Reuters reported on Friday.

The boat capsized in strong winds and high waves, Di Giacomo said. “Some survivors were taken to Lampedusa and others were brought back to Tunisia.”

More people fleeing Tunisia

Di Giacomo said that since last November, more sub-Saharan Africans than Tunisians had been arriving in Italy via the Tunisian route. This is a result of people from sub-Saharan Africa fleeing discrimination in Tunisia, he said.

There has been a rise in racist attacks on undocumented migrants from sub-Saharan Africa living in Tunisia since a government crackdown began earlier in the year.

Di Giacomo also said badly-welded boats which sank easily were contributing to the high rate of shipwrecks.

Last week, at least 12 people were missing and three died after three boats sank off Tunisia, Reuters quoted a Tunisian official as saying on Thursday. The Tunisian coast guard reportedly rescued 152 others, but it is unclear whether the four survivors from Thursday’s shipwreck were on one of these boats.

Read more: Boat wrecks off Tunisia reveal worsening situation in the country

The Italian island of Lampedusa is located about 145 kilometers from the Tunisian coast and is one of the main entry points to the European Union for people crossing the Mediterranean. Last year, more than 46,000 people arrived in Lampedusa from North Africa.

Rescue vessel reports ‘hourly new distress calls’

On Saturday (June 24), 45 people were rescued and brought to Lampedusa by the ‘Nadir’, according to the German organization Resqship, which operates the 18-meter sailboat. The migrants had left from Sfax and had been adrift for more than three days in a metal boat when a fishing vessel in the Maltese maritime search and rescue zone raised the alarm.

The boat’s engine had reportedly failed and it was listing and taking on water. The people on board, nearly half of whom were under 18, had been without drinking water for a day-and-a-half, the German news agency EPD reported.

Rachel Austin, a doctor on Nadir, said eight of the migrants had received medical treatment. “To be exposed on the open sea for such a long time, without any drinking water, leads to severe dehydration, as well as psychological consequences,” she said.

Resqship said Friday that the crew of the Nadir had supported 144 people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea in the previous 36 hours, on five boats. “It’s difficult to keep track of the situation on the Med, hourly new distress cases get in,” the organization tweeted. 

Between Monday and Saturday last week, Nadir rescued a total 513 people fom distress at sea, according to EPD. Most were handed over to the Italian coast guard.

Migrant boat lacked fuel to save Syrian who fell overboard

Survivors rescued from another boat in Maltese SAR waters by the vessel Geo Barents, operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), experienced traumatic events as one migrant, a 23-year-old Syrian man, had fallen overboard and drifted from the rubber boat. The others were unable to retrieve him because they had run out of fuel, explained Sebastien Ponsford, humanitarian affairs officer with MSF, in a video shared on social media.

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Afterwards, a merchant vessel arrived and gave the migrants water and food before leaving again, Ponsford says.

Survivors also told MSF that the Maltese Navy gave them fuel so that they could reach Italy, assuring them that the coast was only 50 miles away and they would escort the migrant boat north. The migrants said they had requested that the Maltese Navy rescue them and that one person had fallen overboard, their boat was taking on water, and they had run out of fuel and food.

Shared EU rescue mechanism a ‘matter of conscience’

Following last Thursday’s boat sinking off Lampedusa, the UN’s Cardoletti urged EU member states to establish a coordinated and shared rescue mechanism at sea, saying it is now “a matter of conscience.”

Di Giacomo also called for “patrols of European ships to monitor the Tunisian route as well as the Libyan route, otherwise we will witness a disaster this summer.”

One of the worst migrant boat disasters in history happened earlier this month, when a fishing trawler sank in a deep part of the Mediterranean off the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece.

The boat had been crammed with hundreds of people, only 104 of whom survived. Human rights organizations are calling for an independent investigation into the shipwreck after reports from survivors cast doubt on the accounts by the Greek coast guard.

A few days before the Pylos disaster, EU ministers reached agreements on a revision of rules on sharing responsibility for hosting asylum seekers.

The number of people who have survived central Mediterranean crossings and been registered in the EU has more than doubled this year compared with the same period in 2022, according to the European border agency Frontex.