“It was like navigating the corpses.” The direct testimony of Alessandro Porro tells the umpteenth tragedy of the sea, on the migration route from North Africa: with the Ocean Viking he did not arrive in time to save 130 people drowned off the coast of Libya, after two days on a rubber boat at the mercy of the Mediterranean in storm, to launch requests for help in vain. Ignored, according to the complaint by Sea-Watch International and other NGOs , by the European authorities and by Frontex, who “denied the rescue”. “The states have refused to save the castaways”, the UN International Organization for Migration also accuses.
The Italian Coast Guard identified the merchant ships that were closest to the area in which the presence of boats carrying migrants had been reported and communicated them to the Libyan authorities. And what sources of the Coast Guard report on the reconstruction carried out by Alarm Phone after the shipwreck. The event, the sources continued, took place in the Libyan SAR area and the Tripoli authorities took over coordination. The Coast Guard, at the request of the same authorities and as required by international conventions, has identified the merchant ships then used by Libyans for research. ”
The drama leads the EU to ask for more powers, and in Italy it becomes controversy of internal politicswhen Matteo Salvini tweets that the new victims are “on the conscience of the do-gooders who, in fact, invite and facilitate smugglers and traffickers to put very old boats and boats into the sea, even in bad weather conditions”. Thus a new front is created between the Northern League leader and the government allies. “Shameful speculations”, and the replied by several voices of the Democratic Party, while Leu announces “an urgent question to the Government so that the Italian responsibilities are clarified”.
The painful bulletin comes at the time when the head of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese and the Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Al Mangoush were discussing the fight against criminal organizations that manage human trafficking at the Interior Ministry. One of the causes of this umpteenth massacre. However, “it was not an accident”, according to Alarm Phone, the emergency contact in support of the rescue operations, who first raised the alarm: ” They could have been saved but all the authorities knowingly let them die at sea “.
On Wednesday morning, and its reconstruction, Alarm Phone receives the report of a dinghy in difficulty with 130 people on board (including 7 women, one pregnant), which left the previous evening from Al-Khoms, Libya, and warns the Maritime rescue coordination Italian center, namely the Coast Guard, the CCR of Malta, the Libyan coastguard, the UNHCR and the rescue ships of the NGOs engaged in the Mediterranean. Frontex also assures that it has “immediately alerted the national rescue centers in Italy, Malta and Libya”. “At 14.11 – continues Alarm Phone – the Italian Mrcc told us on the phone that we should have informed the ‘competent authorities'”, namely the Libyan ones, who then let it be known that they are looking for three boats in difficulty. In the evening, she explains the Alarm Phone again, from the boat they tell of having seen a plane “and we believe it was Frontex’s Osprey aircraft”. Shortly thereafter, the Libyan authorities reported that sea conditions prevented searches.
“At night there were waves six meters high– says Porro from Ocean Viking, the Sos Mediterranee ship now engaged in the search for the other two missing boats -. I spent a few hours in the bathroom throwing up. I was exhausted, dehydrated, struggled back to bed, and was protected by a lady of the waters who weighs thousands of tons. Outside, somewhere in those same waves, a dinghy with 120 people. Or 100, or 130. We will never know, because they are all dead. “In the search operations together with three merchant ships, the crew of Ocean Viking found the raft torn apart and a dozen bodies, spilled into the water wearing a useless life jacket. .
“The news of the disaster in the Mediterranean is dramatic. The horror must push us to act. Not to be silent. Not to turn the other way. The humanitarian corridors managed by the UN are the solution”. This was supported by the leader of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta on twitter.

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