A boat carrying about 500 migrants has gone missing in the Mediterranean. Among them are newborn babies and women of childbearing age. Al-Jazeera published this news about two human rights organizations.
Italian NGO Emergencies said on Thursday that ships Life Support and Ocean Viking and another charity ship had been searching for the missing boat for 24 hours. However, the location was not found.
Alarm Phone, the group that responds to calls from migrants in distress, said on Friday that they lost contact with the boat on Wednesday morning. At the time, the boat was floating with engine failure, 400 km from Malta and the southern Italian island of Sicily, 320 km north of the Libyan port of Benghazi.
A spokesman for the emergency said on Friday, “Rescue operations are underway.” The people in that boat may have been picked up by another boat or they may have fixed the engine and headed for Sicily.’
Meanwhile, Italy’s coastguard said on Thursday that 473 and 671 people were rescued in two separate operations. But the alarm phone said the rescuers were none of those on the missing boat.
