The NGO Sea-Watch ship rescued 119 migrants in the central Mediterranean on Sunday.
“Sea-Watch does not stop, even on Christmas Eve. In two rescue operations, our crew has saved 119 people who are now safe on board. The youngest castaway is only 3 years old”declared the NGO on social media.
Italian authorities have indicated Marina di Carrara, in central Italy, as the port of disembarkation, according to the same sources.
The NGO also explained that it had stayed overnight from Saturday to Sunday south of Lampedusa to participate in the search for a fishing boat with around 150 people on board, which, after being identified, was rescued by two Italian coast guard patrol boats south of Lampedusa.
According to data updated as of December 22 by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, 153,677 migrants have reached Italian coasts since the start of 2023, half of them without assistance, the rest having been rescued by patrol boats Italians, and nearly 6,000 by humanitarian ships.
Most of the autonomous landings were recorded in Lampedusa, and this year almost two thousand boats crossed the central Mediterranean to reach Italy. Most of the small boats departed from the Tunisian coast, the large, dilapidated fishing boats from Libya.
The spokesperson for the Mediterranean coordination office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Flavio di Giacomo, denounced the fact that “2,271 people have died in the central Mediterranean this year, 60% more than during the same period last year.”