54 Migrants Rescued from Mediterranean Oil Platform
Over 50 migrants were headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa Sunday after a charity ship rescued them from an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean, where one woman gave birth.
The vessel Astral, operated by the Spain-based NGO Open Arms, rescued the 54 people overnight, the group said in a statement.
The migrants had been trapped on the oil platform for three days after their rubber boat shipwrecked following their departure from Libya on Tuesday, Open Arms said.
On Friday, one of the migrants gave birth to a boy, while another woman had given birth days before. Two other young children were among the group, Open Arms said, according to AFP.
Later Sunday, the charity said that, following the rescue of those on the oil platform, the Astral came upon another 109 people, including four people in the water.
That group, which included 10 children, had also departed from Libya, it said.
Open Arms said they provided life jackets to the migrants before they were rescued by another charity ship, the Louise Michel, which is sponsored by street artist Banksy.
The Louise Michel, a former French navy vessel, was transporting the migrants to a safe port in Sicily, Open Arms said.
It is not unusual for migrants crossing the Mediterranean on leaky and overcrowded boats to seek refuge on offshore oil platforms.
As of June 1, some 23,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
16 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Gaza child survivor of Israeli strike heads to Italy
A 10-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last month which killed his father and nine siblings was due to arrive in Italy Wednesday for treatment. Adam and his mother, pediatrician Alaa al-Najjar, were due to fly to Milan in northern Italy on Wednesday evening alongside his aunt and four cousins, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said. 'Adam will arrive in Milan and will be admitted to the Niguarda (hospital), because he has multiple fractures and he will be treated there,' Tajani told Rtl radio. A plane carrying Palestinians in need of medical care is scheduled to land at 7:30 pm (1730 GMT) at Milan's Linate airport, according to the foreign ministry. Adam had a hand amputated and suffered severe burns across his body following the strike on the family house in the city of Khan Younis on May 23. His mother was at work when the bomb hit the house, killing nine of her children and injuring Adam and his father, doctor Hamdi al-Najjar, who died last week. Al-Najjar, who ran to the house to find her children charred beyond recognition, told Italy's Repubblica daily: 'I remember everything. Every detail, every minute, every scream.' 'But when I remember it's too painful, so I try to keep my mind focused entirely on Adam,' she said in an interview published Wednesday ahead of their arrival. Asked by his mother during the interview to describe his hopes, Adam said he wanted to 'live in a beautiful place.' 'A beautiful place is a place where there are no bombs. In a beautiful place the houses are not broken and I go to school,' he said, according to La Repubblica. 'Schools have desks, the kids study their lessons but then they go play in the courtyard and nobody dies. 'A beautiful place is where they operate on my arm and my arm works again. In a beautiful place my mother is not sad. They told me that Italy is a beautiful place.' Al-Najjar said she has packed the Quran, their documents and Adam's clothes. 'I am heartbroken. I am leaving behind everything that was important to me. My husband, my children, the hospital where I worked, my job, my patients,' she said. 'People are dying of hunger. If not of hunger, of bombs. We would just like to live in peace,' she told the daily. The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
54 migrants rescued from Mediterranean oil platform
ROME: Over 50 migrants were headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday after a charity ship rescued them from an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean, where one woman gave birth. The vessel Astral, operated by the Spain-based NGO Open Arms, rescued the 54 people, the group said in a statement. The migrants had been trapped on the oil platform for three days after their rubber boat shipwrecked following their departure from Libya on Tuesday, Open Arms said. On Friday, one of the migrants gave birth to a boy, while another woman had given birth days before. Two other young children were among the group, Open Arms said. Later Sunday, the charity said that, following the rescue of those on the oil platform, the Astral came upon another 109 people, including four people in the water. That group, which included 10 children, had also departed from Libya, it said. Open Arms said they provided life jackets to the migrants before they were rescued by another charity ship, the Louise Michel, which street artist Banksy sponsors. The Louise Michel, a former French navy vessel, was transporting the migrants to a safe port in Sicily, Open Arms said. It is not unusual for migrants crossing the Mediterranean on leaky and overcrowded boats to seek refuge on offshore oil platforms. As of June 1, some 23,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
54 Migrants Rescued from Mediterranean Oil Platform
Over 50 migrants were headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa Sunday after a charity ship rescued them from an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean, where one woman gave birth. The vessel Astral, operated by the Spain-based NGO Open Arms, rescued the 54 people overnight, the group said in a statement. The migrants had been trapped on the oil platform for three days after their rubber boat shipwrecked following their departure from Libya on Tuesday, Open Arms said. On Friday, one of the migrants gave birth to a boy, while another woman had given birth days before. Two other young children were among the group, Open Arms said, according to AFP. Later Sunday, the charity said that, following the rescue of those on the oil platform, the Astral came upon another 109 people, including four people in the water. That group, which included 10 children, had also departed from Libya, it said. Open Arms said they provided life jackets to the migrants before they were rescued by another charity ship, the Louise Michel, which is sponsored by street artist Banksy. The Louise Michel, a former French navy vessel, was transporting the migrants to a safe port in Sicily, Open Arms said. It is not unusual for migrants crossing the Mediterranean on leaky and overcrowded boats to seek refuge on offshore oil platforms. As of June 1, some 23,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
