The captain of the Maridive 601 (boat) called on the Tunisian authorities to intervene in order to allow his crew to enter the commercial port of Zarzis, after the worsening of their situation.
Akhbar Al Joumhouria Newspaper’s website revealed that the Egyptian crew of the oil boat saved 75 irregular migrants from drowning in the deep sea, last Friday, following the Italian authorities’ request.
The captain expressed in a statement to the website that the situation requires the urgent finding of a solution to transport the migrants to land, pointing out that three cases require medical intervention, including a diabetic person, a person with a fractured finger and the third has a stomach-ache.
He added that the crew did everything necessary to the 75 people. However, the boat is now out of supplies, especially blankets and clothes. Moreover, he pointed out to the danger of their current situation, because of the lack of safety tools, in case of accidents on the surface, calling on the Tunisian authorities to allow them to enter, as a humanitarian action.
It is noteworthy that this incident is the second of its kind, the regional authorities in the province of Medenine dealt with the first one in the same way.
This decision came for several reasons, the most important of which was Tunisia's rejection of Italy's attempt to make Tunisia hold refugees’ camps. Secondly, there are no available places to house those fleeing Libya by land and sea, in light of the absence of cooperation from the neighbouring provinces of Tataouine, Gabes and Sfax, as well as because of the high costs it demands.
#Tunisia #irregular_migrants
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