Bodies of 22 refugees found at bottom of rubber dinghy adrift near the Libyan coast, MSF says.
The bodies of 21 women and one man have been found “in a pool of fuel” at the bottom of a rubber dinghy adrift near the Libyan coast, just hours after they had set sail for Italy, according to the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
An MSF ship patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea came to the rescue of two dinghies that were sailing close together and managed to pull 209 people, including 50 children, to safety on Wednesday.
However, 22 people were found dead at the bottom of the first dinghy.
“When our team approached the first dinghy, they saw dead bodies lying at the bottom of the
boat in a pool of fuel,” said Jens Pagotto, MSF head of mission for search and rescue operations.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Pagotto said it was “still not entirely clear what happened, but they died a horrible death. It is tragic.
“It seems that water and fuel mixed together and the fumes from this might have been enough for them to lose consciousness.”
The survivors, most of them from West African countries such as Nigeria and Guinea, were being brought to Sicily, along with the dead, and were due to reach the port of Trapani on Friday.
Italian authorities have reported a jump in the number of refugees and migrants who have left Libya this week on overcrowded boats in search of a better life in Europe, as people smugglers take advantage of calm seas and hot summer weather.
More than 2,500 people were rescued on Tuesday and one body was recovered, Italy’s coast guard said. Almost 600 people were saved on Wednesday.
‘Safe passage’
In June, the number of refugees and migrants who arrived in Italy by sea was nearly the same as during the same month last year, according to Barbara Molinario, the United Nations refugee agency’s (UNHCR) communications officer in Italy.
Explaining that refugees and migrants are in desperate need of a “safe passage” to Europe, she told Al Jazeera: “Increasingly, we are seeing that people who are dying are the ones in the hull of the boat due to the lack of sufficient air. Many people have died of suffocation or from the heat.”