Saved, the baby born on Italian rescue ship
SOUND asleep and wrapped up in a white cloth, this newborn baby girl is the picture of calm. But her start in life could hardly have been more turbulent.
She was born on an Italian navy ship after her mother was plucked from a dangerously overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean while risking everything for a new life in Europe.
The woman was in labour when she was rescued by the patrol boat Bettica on Sunday night. She has named the baby Francesca Marina, apparently after her rescuers, who are known as the Marina Militare in Italian.
She is the sixth baby to be born on a navy vessel since 2013. The navy, which released a photograph of her sleeping in a makeshift cradle, said: ‘Mother and daughter are in good health.’
The pair were among nearly 6,800 African migrants pulled to safety from 34 boats found in distress in the Mediterranean between Friday and Sunday alone. The bodies of ten migrants were found in the water or in boats off Libya. Another three died when a boat trying to reach Greece sank off its coast.
The weekend’s worrying figures have reinforced f ears that migrants fleeing North Africa for Europe have not been put off by recent disasters. Some 1,750 migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean already this year – 30 times more than in the same period in 2014.
Around 800 on a single fishing boat drowned last month when it capsized.
Last month, EU leaders decided to triple funding for Operation Triton, the Mediterranean border patrols.
Royal Navy assault ship HMS Bulwark is set to join the search and rescue efforts.