Baby girl found dead in stricken migrant boat heading for Italy
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Migrants trying to flee to Europe on a small boat intercepted in waters between Tunisia and Italy in August 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
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LAMPEDUSA, Italy – The body of a five-month-old baby was found on May 28 when some 85 migrants heading for Italy from Tunisia were rescued from distress at sea, according to a Reuters witness.
The infant girl, her mother and four-year-old sister were in an unseaworthy boat laden with migrants that set off from Sfax in Tunisia two days earlier bound for Italy, according to charity group SOS Humanity.
SOS Humanity workers aboard its Humanity 1 vessel found many of the migrants exhausted and suffering from seasickness and fuel burns as they were rescued before dawn on May 28, the group said in a statement.
Some 185 migrants rescued in separate operations this week, including the stricken boat overnight, were being taken aboard Humanity 1 to the port of Livorno in north-west Italy.
Another 120 migrants were transferred by a coast guard boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa in the southern Mediterranean.
Tunisia is grappling with a migrant crisis
Italy has sought to curb migrant arrivals from Africa, making it harder for charity ships to operate in the Mediterranean, limiting the number of rescues they can carry out and often forcing them to make huge detours to bring migrants ashore. REUTERS
