At least 74 migrants have died in a shipwreck on Thursday off the Libyan coast, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration has said.
The boat was reported to be carrying over 120 people, among them women and children. Forty-seven survivors have been brought to shore by the coast guard and fishermen and 31 bodies have been retrieved while the search for victims continues.
In a related development
A six-month-old baby has died hours after he was plucked from the Mediterranean, Spanish refugee rescue charity Proactiva Open Arms said on Thursday.
The baby boy from Guinea, Joseph, was among 111 survivors taken in by Open Arms on Wednesday after it sent rescue units to a rubber dinghy that was sinking off the Libyan coast.
In a video footage of the rescue operation, Joseph’s mother was seen sliding across a boat as it moves on the waves, shouting: “Where is my baby? I lose my baby. Find my baby, find my baby.
In the operation, five bodies also were recovered.
Joseph’s death brought the total death toll from the shipwreck to six.
Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona in her tweet said Every life matters and the baby could have been ours but we lost him.
Joseph and his mother, plus a pregnant woman, were evacuated by the Italian coast guard and taken to Lampedusa island, an Open Arms spokeswoman said.
Three more survivors in urgent need of medical attention – a three-month-old baby girl, her mother and a 25-year-old man with serious heart trouble – were airlifted to Malta.
The Open Arms, currently the only active charity rescue vessel in the central Mediterranean, has 257 refugees on board, after three separate operations between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Five bodies are also still on the ship, Open Arms said on Twitter.
