A vessel with around 400 migrants and refugees onboard is adrift between Italy and Malta as it awaits rescue from Italian coastguard, according to sea rescue support service Alarm Phone.
Alarm Phone said it had alerted authorities in Greece, Malta, and Italy when it first received the distress call, but Italian authorities activated a search and rescue operation “only once the boat reached their [search and rescue] region” despite being aware of the case since the initial alert call. “About 400 people have been left at sea in a potentially fatal situation they have been [in] for five days. These cases of non-assistance are systematic and too often provoke a loss of lives to which the authorities are accountable,” the rescue support service said.
The Central Mediterranean route is described by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as the most dangerous migration route in the world—one in six people who departs the shores of North Africa dies. Since 2014, more than 26,000 migrants and refugees have drowned or gone missing while crossing the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration. The figure stands at 503 people this year.
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