Ten bodies found in dinghy off Libyan coast as 2,200 migrants rescued
Pope Francis calls situation of migrants 'shameful' and 'bankrupcy of humanity'
Topaz Responder ship run by Maltese NGO Moas and Italian Red Cross with
rescuers, migrants aboard during operation on Saturday (AFP)
AFP-Saturday 5 November 2016
Ten bodies were recovered on Saturday from a rubber dinghy off the
Libyan coast, the Italian coastguard said, adding that 2,200 other
migrants were rescued during the day.
Sixteen rescue operations were conducted on Saturday - almost twice as many as on Friday when 1,200 people were rescued.
An AFP correspondent aboard the Topaz Responder, a search and rescue
ship chartered by Maltese NGO MOAS and the Italian Red Cross, saw
several hundred people, including children, being rescued on Friday and
Saturday.
Migrants shrouded in foil survival blankets crowded onto the deck of the
vessel after rescue efforts in which at least one baby was saved during
the early hours of Saturday.
The Red Cross tweeted that 707 people were on board the vessel on Saturday.
Pope Francis on Saturday called the situation of migrants "shameful" and "a bankrupcy of humanity".
"The Mediterranean has become a graveyard, and not just the
Mediterranean," he said, adding that there were also "many graveyards
near walls, walls stained with the blood of innocents".
Meanwhile, the Libyan Red Crescent said it recovered the bodies of
another six migrants on a beach west of Tripoli on Saturday, taking to
40 the number of drowned migrants found along the North African
country's coast since Sunday.
People smugglers have exploited the chaos gripping Libya since the 2011
uprising that overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi to traffic migrants
across the Mediterranean to Europe.
As many as 4,220 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean so
far this year, a higher number than the full-year totals for 2014, 2015
or any other year on record, according to the International
Organization for Migration.
