KAREWOOD STAR

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Captain left distressed migrants abandoned on sea

The Italian coastguard and the 'Karewood Star' ignored stricken migrant boat which was left drifting for more than 40 hours on July 13, 2020. The crew of the Moonbird reconnaissance plane, operated by the NGO Sea-Watch and the Humanitarian Pilots Initiative, identified and photographed a small boat with about 60 persons on board in the central Mediterranean. The Moonbird crew, who were first alerted by Alarm Phone, a hotline service for migrants’ boats in distress, notified the Italian and Maltese authorities, sending them the GPS position and telling them that the migrants’ boat was adrift and its engine had failed. AT 4.30 p.m. the Moonbird returned to the position. The migrants’ boat was still there with two other vessels just a few miles from it. The largest was the 'Karewood Star'. The other was an Italian coastguard patrol boat. At 8.15 p.m., having received no update, the Moonbird returned to the place of sighting and discovered that the small boat with migrants onboard was still there, but both the cargo ship and the Italian coastguard patrol boat had disappeared. At that point the Moonbird contacted the captain of the 'Karewood Star' via radio. However, because of linguistic misunderstandings he was unable to give a valid explanation. The Italian Coastguard confirmed it had arrived at the spot and had not taken part in the rescue operations because the cargo ship captain had told them he was planning to rescue the migrants. It had been called to the scene by the Maltese authorities. Almost two days passed before an Italian Guardia di Finanza military ship was able to reach the migrants and save them a few miles from the island of Lampedusa after they were abandoned by European authorities for over 40 hours. The 'Karewood Star' which had been enroute from Porto Nogaro berthed in Sfax on July 14. Report with photo: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/15/italian-coastguard-and-cargo-ship-ignored-stricken-migrant-boat