314 migrants recovered by the Italian Coastguard and Frontex in the Ionian Sea
(B2) 314 migrants - including 107 children, 51 women, 156 men - were rescued by Italian Coast Guard vessels and a Frontex vessel on Wednesday (April 6) as they sailed in the Ionian Sea towards Italy.
They were first spotted by an Italian Coast Guard ATR42 aircraft. Then a Spanish maritime patrol plane from the Guardia Civil, engaged as part of Frontex's Triton operation, took over until the ships were in the area. They were then transferred to the ship Dactyl coast guard and brought ashore in the port of Crotone. For its part, the Norwegian ship Siem Pilot, which is taking part in Frontex's Operation Triton, evacuated 294 people to the port of Taranto in Sicily.
Resurgence of wooden ships or alternative route?
The migrants were on board a wooden boat, with one deck, sufficient to carry a certain number of people. A mode of transport that had not been used for several weeks or even months in Libya. Are we dealing with channels from Egypt? Or is it a resurgence of this type of ship from Libyan networks? This would thus contradict the first lessons learned by EUNAVFOR MED (Read: The first effects of Operation Sophia).
A priori, we can lean more towards the first hypothesis. The shape of the ship, quite typical of the Nile region, seems to prove it. The migrants explained that they left Egypt on two ships. They came from different countries: either from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan...) and a little further afield (Comoros), or from the Middle East (Syria, Palestine).
(NGV)
