Father saves his child, wife after boat capsizes
More than 700 people rescued in two days on Mediterranean Sea
ROME— Desperate choices faced a Palestinian family who were tossed off a capsizing boat into the Mediterranean Sea, with just one life-jacket.
The father’s heroic effort to save his wife and their toddler was among the most dramatic stories to emerge from two days of disasters for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
The father gave his life-jacket to his wife, who couldn’t swim, then dived below the surface to grab their toddler daughter as she sank.
Officials said the family was among 373 people saved after a fishing boat loaded with hundreds of migrants overturned on Wednesday, though 25 bodies were also recovered.
On Thursday, 381 people were saved when their boat got into difficulty off the Libyan coast.
Video made aboard the ship Dignity1 and released by Doctors Without Borders showed the family recovering from their ordeal. The mother kissed the hand of her daughter Azeel, a thin girl with wavy dark hair, a little more than 1 year old. The father, Mohammed, sat next to them.
Military vessels and aircraft from a multi-nation operation were searching waters off Libya on Thursday for any more survivors. Warm, calm seas inspired hope of finding more survivors, but none had been found by evening.
In a separate rescue Thursday morning, all 381people aboard a fishing boat off the Libyan coast were taken aboard the Italian coast guard vessel Fiorillo, the coast guard said. Shortly after the Fiorillo set sail to take the survivors to Italian shores, the fishing boat sank, the coast guard said.
Military officials from Ireland, whose navy vessel Le Niamh was among the vessels on the scene Wednesday, said they were given an initial estimate of 600 migrants aboard the smugglers’ boat. If that estimate holds, as many as 200 migrants might have drowned.
Le Niamh docked in Palermo, Sicily, late Thursday afternoon with 367 survivors aboard, along with 25 plain wooden coffins. Six other survivors were evacuated by helicopters for treatment.
As Le Niamh pulled in, a little boy, peering between the metal railing of the ship, waved and gave a thumbsup sign. A young girl, her head jerking back, appeared to collapse as she was scooped into the arms of one of the land-based personnel helping the survivors disembark.
When the Dignity1 arrived at the site, it was hard to tell how many were in the water, Juan Matias Gil, a search-and-rescue operations field co-ordinator with Doctors Without Borders, told The Associated Press.
“All in all, there were no more than 50 people” in the water, Gil said. “There were some bodies floating, so it was quite a shocking scene.” It may never be known how many people may have been trapped on lower decks of the boat when it overturned. Gil noted these fishing boats favoured by smugglers have two lower decks. “If you are in the floor downstairs, it is impossible to go out if the boat capsizes.”