Greek authorities said that A group of 61 migrants was picked up by a cargo ship from a crippled fishing boat in the central Mediterranean. The vessel safely reached the island of Crete hours after a severely ill child on the freighter died while airlifting to Greece.
The Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian migrants had reportedly been stranded for days without allocation. They reside without the provision on a leaking fishing boat near Malta. After trying to sail from Lebanon to Italy about 10 days ago.
“We had tried pressing the Maltese, Italian, and Greek authorities for days to get them to authorize a ship in the vicinity of the migrants to rescue them.’’ Moroccan-Italian activist Nawal Soufy told the Associated Press. Soufy had been in contact with the migrants on board and rescue freighter, BBC Pearl, via satellite phone.
“We’re now waiting for the Greek authorities to respond to our queries about the migrants’ current situation.’’
On Tuesday, a Greek navy helicopter airlifted a 4-year-old girl with health problems. Yet her mother off the BBC Pearl, but the child was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in Crete.
The coast guard said the remaining 33 men, 7 women, and 21 children. Disembarked from Antigua and Barbuda. flagged ship early Wednesday at the port of Kali Limenes on southern Crete.