First Major Shipwreck of the Year

Back in January, on the 9^th to be exact, an Italian coast guard rescued refugees after dinghy took on water and started deflating in the Mediterranean Sea.  A dinghy is a small, inflatable rubber boat meant for a small amount of people, yet, this one was carrying 150 fleeing refugees.  It is believed that as many as ¾ of the dinghies capacity died after a traffickers’ overcrowded rubber dinghy sank.

This event took place off the coast of Garabulli, which is east of Tripoli, Libya.  There was a total of 86 people rescued by the coast guard, however, 64 of the refugees are believed to have drowned.  Eight bodies; six women and two men, were recovered from the dinghy, per a UN migration agency official, but there are still 56 migrants unaccounted for.  One of the refugees stated, “some eight hours into the Mediterranean crossing, ‘water started pouring in, panic ensued, the migrants all moved to one side, and the boat lost its balance and was deflating.’”  The Italian coast guard arrived about half an hour after the dinghy was spotted by a European naval aircraft.  Many of the Refugees came from Mali, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Senegal, and Nigeria.

Tommaso Fabbri, who is the head of the MSF mission in Italy stated, “Only by opening legal, secure, stable, and sustainable routes for those seeking protection will it be possible to prevent desperate people putting their own and their children’s destinies in the hands of traffickers.”

We have discussed many times in class about the various ways refugees can get from place to place, and this reminded me of class when Jenna had her friend, Zabi, talk about his experiences.  He described how he didn’t know if the boat he was on was even going to make it to the island, there was a chance for it to go past it, then what would happen?  This situation is similar.  All of these refugees were not going to make it to their sought destination; families no longer whole, mothers without children and children no longer with parents.  It is saddening to read about this tragedy because the dinghy should not have been overcrowded, even though that is normally the case when traffickers are smuggling people over boarders.  I believe if I was in the shoes of someone in that situation, I would still be on that boat trying to make it to a better life.  After all, that is all refugees want, isn’t it?

 

References:

Osborn, Samuel

2018, 64 Refugees Believed to Have Drowned off Coast of Libya in First Major Shipwreck of Year. The Independent, January 9.