Two shipwrecks off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia. Another in Libyan waters that is only known from the stories of the survivors. It is again a massacre in the Mediterranean. In just over a day at least three small boats overturned, but only some of the shipwrecked, who were trying to reach Europe on those sea carts, were saved.
Off the coast of Sfax, within a few hours, the Tunisian authorities confirm, two photocopied tragedies took place. Overloaded sea carts departed from the coasts of Al-Amerah, but could not withstand navigation on the open sea. A few hours after the start, the waves made them overturn. About thirty people were traveling on the first, but only eighteen were saved.
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Of nine survivors, the Tunisian Coast Guard found only the body, but the toll could rise. At least two or three other people who were traveling with them are missing and are still being searched, along with ten others who were on board a second small boat, capsized a few hours later. Nineteen of them made it, for four people there was nothing more to do when the coast guard arrived. In Tunisia, only their corpses have returned.
On the other hand, there are no precise numbers on the umpteenth cart of the sea that the Mediterranean swallowed between Saturday and Sunday. When the Sea Watch3 crew arrived, after replying to an SOS message, in the sea there were only pieces of tubulars from an old dinghy, wreckage, terrified people. In the area, the Libyan coast guard also arrived shortly after, but it does not appear to have intervened to pull out of the sea the people who – desperate – were asking for help.
The fast rescue boats of Sea Watch3 were lowered quickly, the crew managed to rescue thirty-eight people in a short time, “but our crew – the German NGO said – had to acknowledge that for some it was too late “.
Terrified, exhausted after hours in the water, as soon as they were safely placed on the bridge, the shipwrecked said they saw dozens of travel companions disappear in the waves. Twelve, maybe more. On this point the testimonies diverge and it is not strange that this happens. Groups of strangers end up on the boats, loaded as parcels by human traffickers. The more they are, the more rewarding the trip. And the merchants of vine do not care that rubber boats and small boats are so loaded that they begin to take on water as soon as they face the waves in the open sea.
Stammering, the survivors began to tell something of what happened – the engine jams, the dinghy deflates – but in the end the script – anyone who has been trying to save lives in the Mediterranean for years knows – is still the same. And it always tells a story of fear, despair, too often death.
The same experience that the other castaways saved by Sea Watch 3 have experienced since the beginning of the mission. In twenty-four hours, the crew of the German NGO ship intervened to rescue four other boats and dinghies in difficulty, all battered, with the engine stopped or at risk of sinking due to leaks in the hull or tubulars.
Now on board the NGO ship there are now 211 people including forty women, three of whom are in an advanced state of pregnancy. One of them is in her eighth month, but despite knowing the risks of the crossing she did not hesitate for a moment to embark. Among the rescued, there were also about thirty minors, almost all unaccompanied. All wearing and in their eyes, signs and scars of torture, violence and abuse suffered in Libya. “Our doctors are treating the numerous guests – they say on board – but our ship, despite being well equipped, is not a hospital”. For some of the survivors, perhaps a medical evacuation will be arranged in the next few hours, but in general all survivors of crossings and shipwrecks are proven. “The right to life, to physical integrity, must apply to everyone” tweets Sea Watch3. But, as often happens now, no one answers.