VALLETTA — Three pregnant women and 55 children, including a one-month-old baby, were among those rescued by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) this week.
The organization says some 371 people could have drowned if it wasn’t for its five missions that helped lift scores of migrants to safety from Malta’s waters.
Footage filmed by MSF on Thursday showed rescuers distributing life jackets to migrants on their boat before they were transported to the Geo Barents vessel.
The organization Alarm Phone alerted the authorities and private rescue missions that boats were spotted departing Libya earlier this week.
But Doctors Without Borders said authorities have not done enough to help migrants at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
The rescued people remain onboard the MSF ship Geo Barents as they await a safe port to disembark.
Meanwhile, violent clashes have erupted at Cyprus’s Pournara migrant center following a dispute over a mobile phone charging cable.
Congolese and Nigerian residents reportedly started throwing rocks and objects at each other. Several tents caught fire while some twenty residents and security guards were injured in the fight.
Anti-riot police fired tear gas and evacuated the camp, three people were taken to hospital for treatment.
Hundreds left the facility and headed to the nearby village of Kokkinotrimithia.
Located some 22 kilometers from the capital Nicosia, over 2,000 people are now living at the camp in cramped conditions. The camp can hold 1,000 people at full capacity.
Cyprus is struggling to cope with an influx of asylum seekers from Syria and African countries while the mayor of Kokkinotrimithia, Christakis Meleties, stressed that the situation has escalated more than ever and spoke about a new “Moria”, a reference to the migrant camp in Lesvos, Greece.
“We said it at the House of Representatives, both to the interior committee and the ad hoc committee for demographics, that we will very soon face a situation similar to Moria so it’s here today.
“It didn’t take that long to happen, two or three months after we stressed out about this situation, it happened,” he said.
Officials said the families have now returned to the camp after calm was restored.
Cyprus’ police chief Stylianos Papatheodorou attributed the violence to the camp’s overcrowded conditions and said police have stepped up measures to guard against such incidents.
Authorities in Nicosia last week said this year alone, 17,000 people had entered their jurisdiction through irregular channels. There were 12,285 in the whole of 2021. — Euronews
