Mediterranea: ‘Up to 1,000 people may be missing at sea due to Cyclone Harry’

Rome, 2 February (LaPresse) – ‘Up to 1,000 people may be missing at sea due to Cyclone Harry,’ according to a statement released by Mediterranea. ‘The contours of the greatest tragedy in recent years along the central Mediterranean routes are taking shape, and the governments of Italy and Malta are silent and not lifting a finger,’ denounced Laura Marmorale, president of Mediterranea Saving Humans, who is relaunching the new testimonies and new elements gathered in recent days by Refugees in Libya and Tunisia. Mediterranea points out that among the various testimonies relating to this period, those collected ‘from refugees among the communities in Tunisia provide a much broader and more alarming picture’. According to these testimonies, in fact, “from 15 January onwards, faced with increasing pressure from the Tunisian military with raids and devastation in the informal camps in the olive groves around Sfax and a relaxation of controls on the beaches, several convoys left from different coastal points. According to testimonies gathered from people who were supposed to be on these boats but were forced to wait due to lack of money, as well as from relatives of those who left, entire convoys never returned. It is said that a single trafficker, known locally as Mohamed “Mauritania”, pushed five convoys, each carrying between 50 and 55 people.”