NGO ship recovers bodies of 11 migrants in Mediterranean

The Doctors Without Borders NGO rescue ship, Geo Barents, recovered the bodies of 11 people on Friday who died at sea while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

According to an MSF post on X on Friday afternoon the GeoBarents received an alert from the crew on board of the SeaBird, the Sea Watch NGO rescue plane, who spotted bodies of people floating at sea.

They moved to the area then started recovering the bodies of the victims.

They said the recovery operation lasted 9 hours.

"Yesterday, the Geo Barents, after carrying out two rescue operations of a small fiberglass boat and a dinghy with 109 people on board, recovered the dead bodies of eleven people at sea, thanks also to the support of the Sea Watch, Sea Bird," said Fulvia Conte, MSF rescue operations coordinator onboard of Geo Barents.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), between 1st January and 1st June 2024, 282 people died attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean area.

A further 449 were recorded as missing.

A total of 7,059 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya in the same period, according to IOM.

"People will always try to find a safe life, not so much a better life, but a safe life, and there should be legal channels to escape from absolutely inhuman situations," Conte added.

Data from the Italian Interior Ministry show the number of migrants arriving in Italy is way down compared to the same period last year.

As of Tuesday, 21,574 people had arrived in Italy via boat so far this year, compared to 51,628 during the same period in 2023.