The body of a five-month-old baby was found on Tuesday as around 85 migrants from Tunisia heading to Italy were rescued from danger at sea, according to a Reuters witness.
According to the charity group SOS Humanity, the girl, her mother and her 4-year-old sister were on an unseaworthy boat loaded with migrants that left Sfax, Tunisia, two days earlier bound for Italy.
SOS Humanity workers aboard the vessel “Humanity 1” found many of the migrants exhausted and suffering from seasickness and fuel burns when they were rescued before dawn on Tuesday, the group said in a statement.
Around 185 migrants rescued in separate operations this week, including the boat struck overnight, had been taken aboard the “Humanity 1” to the port of Livorno, in north-west Italy. Another 120 migrants were transferred by a coast guard vessel to the Italian island of Lampedusa in the southern Mediterranean.
Tunisia is facing a migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict further south in Africa and the Middle East in hopes of a better life in Europe.
Italy has sought to limit the arrival of migrants from Africa, making it difficult for charity ships to operate in the Mediterranean, limiting the number of rescues they can carry out and often forcing them to make long detours to bring migrants ashore.
Source: Terra
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