Miracle migrant babies
5-day-olds among 1,000s saved at sea
Five-day-old twins were among the thousands of refugees and migrants saved in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday.
The miracle babies, delivered prematurely at just eight months, were traveling with their mom — and one of the tiny tots was seriously ill, according to Doctors Without Borders.
“He was vomiting, had hypothermia and was nonresponsive,” medical team leader Antonia Zemp explained. “After a first triage, our medical team decided to request an evacuation due to the fact that his health was so fragile that he would not have survived the long journey to Italy in our boat.”
The babes were put on another vessel heading to shore, then transferred via medevac to Italy for emergency care.
As part of one of the largest migrant-rescue efforts ever, more than 6,500 people were saved off of the Libyan coast on Monday after 40 different rescue operations.
Another 3,000 migrants were rescued from the Strait of Sicily on Tuesday during 30 different rescue missions, according to the Italian coast guard.
Clear weather and calm seas may have caused thousands of people to attempt the dangerous voyage at the same time, experts said.
The migrants rescued Monday, who are mostly from Eritrea and Somalia, set out from Libya in rubber dinghies and wooden boats, but lacked enough fuel to make it to Europe.
“This is one of the largest numbers of people we have assisted in any single day since our search- and-rescue operations began over a year ago,” said Nicholas Papachrysostomou, a Doctors Without Borders field coordinator.
The NGO’s ship, Dignity I, rescued 435 people on Monday, including 92 unaccompanied minors and 13 children under the age of 5.
More than 105,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat this year, fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, according to the International Organization for Migration. Last year, more than 1 million migrants traveled to Europe.
“This unbelievable number speaks to the desperation people are facing in their countries that pushes them to risk their lives to seek safety and protection in Europe,” Papachrysostomou said.
So far this year, more than 3,167 refugees and migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration.