Published: Less than 10 min ago
At least 29 migrants have died in the Mediterranean over the weekend when they tried to get from Africa to Europe.
The dead were found by Tunisian fishermen, the country’s coast guard said, who managed to rescue 11 people from a sinking boat late on Saturday night.
According to a Tunisian aid organization, five boats are feared to have sunk over the weekend and 67 people were still missing late Sunday.
At the same time, both the Italian authorities and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) state that the Italian coast guard has seized a German rescue ship on the island of Lampedusa, roughly 60 nautical miles from Tunisia. It is the second rescue ship stopped by Italy in three days.
“We know of tens of boats that are currently in distress off the island (Lampedusa), yet we are prevented from helping them. Totally unacceptable,” writes MSF on Twitter.
The Italian coast guard states that it seized the vessel after it was ordered to stay in port but “disobeyed the order and set out against three other migrant boats”.