Ten bodies found in dinghy off Libyan coast as 2,200 migrants rescued
Ten bodies were recovered on Saturday from a rubber dinghy off the Libyan coast, the Italian coastguard said, adding that 2,200 other migrants were rescued during the day.
Sixteen rescue operations were conducted on Saturday, almost twice as many than on Friday, when 1,200 people were rescued.
An AFP correspondent aboard the Topaz Responder, a search and rescue ship chartered by Maltese NGO MOAS and the Italian Red Cross, saw several hundred people, including children, being rescued on Friday and Saturday.
Migrants shrouded in foil survival blankets crowded onto the deck of the vessel after rescue efforts in which at least one baby was saved during the early hours of Saturday.
The Red Cross tweeted that 707 people were on board the vessel on Saturday.
Pope Francis on Saturday called the situation of migrants "shameful" and "a bankrupcy of humanity".
"The Mediterranean has become a graveyard, and not just the Mediterranean," he said, adding that there were also "many graveyards near walls, walls stained with the blood of innocents".
The Libyan Red Crescent said it had recovered the bodies of another six migrants on a beach west of Tripoli on Saturday, taking to 40 the number of drowned migrants found along the North African country's coast since Sunday.
People smugglers have exploited the chaos gripping Libya since the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi to traffic migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.
As many as 4,220 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year, a higher number than the full-year totals for any other year on record, according to the International Organization for Migration.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
