Rescue 130 migrants off the coast of Italy

The Mediterranean relief organization (SOS Mediterranean) wrote on its Twitter account on Monday that "Ocean Viking" is moving to the port of Augusta on the Italian island of Sicily.

Subsequently, the ship's crew rescued the migrants during two separate operations. In the second operation, about 130 people were transferred to the ship from an inflatable boat. Two of the occupants of the boat were dead.

Also Sunday, the Italian Coast Guard rescued a pregnant woman from a migrant boat stranded at sea. Aid agencies often travel to Italian ports.

Their operations in the Mediterranean are often politically controversial. The government of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has long called on Brussels to establish a new system for the distribution of migrants.

Most people who start their journey off the coast of North Africa want to go to Italy, which is a member of the European Union.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 930 migrants have drowned or gone missing in the central Mediterranean since the beginning of the year,  numbers Has tripled. compared to the same time at last year. 

The organization estimates that about 78,700 attempts have been made to cross the Mediterranean since January last year.

While a much smaller number of migrants used the extremely dangerous Mediterranean route to Europe last year due to the Corona epidemic, their numbers have clearly increased this year.

 

_{Source and Credit: IOM, SOS}