A baby girl has been born on an Italian navy vessel after her Nigerian mother became one of nearly 6,800 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in three days.
In a nod to her naval rescuers – the Italian Marina Militare – the newborn was named Francesca Marina on Monday. She is the sixth baby to be born on a navy vessel since 2013, one of which arrived on Christmas Day last year. The girl and her Nigerian mother were said to be in good health on the Bettica ship, which was hosting 654 migrants saved in four separate operations since Sunday.
The Italian navy has rescued more than 2,000 people from overcrowded boats in Libyan waters and close to its islands of Lampedusa and Sicily since Friday. Rescue operations including other ships operating in the Mediterranean saw almost 6,800 people saved over three days, with 3,690 plucked from the sea on Saturday. The weekend operations marked one of the busiest periods for rescuers, who saved 14,599 people last May.
The UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, said on Monday that 11 migrants had died during the journey but the causes were unclear. Those rescued began arriving in Italian ports over the weekend, with more due to come ashore later on today.
Carlotta Sami, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said the mother and her baby would be taken directly to hospital upon arrival in Italy. She said despite their vulnerability, pregnant women have no choice but to take the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. “There are different reasons why the women are pregnant. There are families of refugees, women who started their trip months before and suffer abuse during their trip. Pregnancy could be the result of abuse,” she said. “They decide to take the trip because they cannot go back, they do not have other options.”
Growing lawlessness and anarchy in Libya — the last point on one of the main transit routes to Europe — is giving free hand to people smugglers who make an average of 80,000 euros ($90,000) from each boatload, according to an ongoing investigation by an Italian court.
Mild spring weather and calm summer seas are expected to push total arrivals in Italy for 2015 to 200,000, an increase of 30,000 on last year, according to an Interior Ministry projection. Police said officers rescued 21 immigrants in a boat off the southern coast of Spain on Monday.
On Sunday, seven bodies were found on two large rubber boats packed with migrants and three others died after jumping into the water when they saw a merchant ship approaching, the Italian coast guard said. Many migrants who have made the sea crossing this year have been Eritreans, Somalis, Afghanis, Syrians and Nigerians, according to the UN refugee agency. Few details were available regarding the nationalities of those rescued over the weekend.
About 1,800 are estimated to have perished during the crossing already this year, the UN refugee agency said. Some 51,000 have entered Europe by sea, with 30,500 coming via Italy.
