(ANSA) - Cairo, July 17 - The Libyan coast guard on Monday
stopped a migrant boat with 158 migrants aboard.
These included 34 women and nine children, sources said.
The boat was intercepted off the city of Khoms, the coast
guard said.
The migrants received humanitarian and medical assistance and
were taken to a refugee camp at Khoms, the coast guard said.
Libya let a woman and child aboard the drifting migrant boat
die, NGO Proactiva Open Arms said Tuesday, publishing a photo of
the two bodies in the sea, amid the wreckage of the boat.
"The Libyan coast guard said it intercepted a boat with 158
people aboard supplying medical and humanitarian assistance,"
said NGO founder Oscar Camps.
"But they didn't say they left two women and a child aboard
and sank the ship because they didn't want to board the motor
launches".
Four migrants drowned when they jumped into the sea upon
seeing Frontex ship Protector and Finance Guard ship Monte
Sperone approaching off the island of Linosa at the weekend,
relatives and friends told police Tuesday.
For this reason the commander and the 10 migrant smugglers
aboard the boat from Libya have also been charged with death as
a consequence of other crimes.
The 450 migrants including many unaccompanied minors landed
at Pozzallo in Sicily Monday.
France, Malta, Germany, Spain and Portugal have agreed to
take 50 each and Ireland has said it will take 20, in the first
such distribution of migrants.
Carers are lacking due to the government's clampdown on
migrants, the Sant'Egidio lay Catholic ecumenical community said
Tuesday.
"Carers have dropped because of the restrictions envisaged
for immigrants and the halt to migrant flows," it said.
"I raised the question with Premier (Giuseppe), Conte," said
community president Marco Impagliazzo.
Impagliazzo urged the government to issue 50,00 work visas
for carers "at once" and warned that "the elderly are at risk".
Migrant arrivals in Spain have overtaken those in Italy, the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told reporters on
Tuesday.
From the start of the year to July 15 some 18,106 landed on
Spanish shores on the western Mediterranean route while 17,827
came to Italy on the central route from Libya, the IOM told the
press.
Spain's migrant emergency is meanwhile continuing with more
than 892 people rescued at the weekend alone off Andalusian
shores.
Libyan coast guard stops boat (3)
4 migrants drowned off Linosa in separate incident