OKYROE

Allgemeine Informationen

Kurs/Position

Die neuesten Nachrichten

Choas on tanker during rescue operation of migrants

The "Siem Pilot" has rescued 2,400 migrants in the Mediterranean off Libya. 14 people died in the chaos that arose on Oct 22, 2016. The crew was in the process of transferring 1,000 migrants from the tanker "Okyroe" to the "Siem Pilo"t when suddenly, in the dark, rubber boats appeared. Migrants aboard one of the rubber boats that had yet to be rescued desperately sought to reach the rescue ship that was by that point full to capacity and unable to take on more passengers, motoring towards it while crying out for help. Around 25 people threw themselves into the water to attempt to swim towards the "Siem Pilot", forcing the captain to pull back to deter others on the dinghy from doing the same. Speed boats from the "Siem Pilot" later pulled the migrants from the sea and the dinghy and transferred them onto the tanker to await rescue by another vessel, while Medecins Sans Frontiere's Dignity picked up the dead. Panic broke out on the the overloaded tanker during the initial rescue. Migrants were coming from everywhere and pushing for lifejackets, arguing over them. Police officers from the "Siem Pilot" joined the forces on the tanker with riot shields. They were banging their sticks on pipes to make a lot of noise, and they had to hit a few of them. Several of those who were rescued fainted during the operation and had to be dragged aboard the "Siem Pilot". One of the migrants passed a baby from a stricken inflatable launch into the hands of a rescuer. The "Siem Pilot" faced not just the extreme danger of the sea rescues but also had to contend with confrontational people traffickers. There was also a facilitator boat that was very aggressive all night. They used the ship's search light to scare it off but it was determined to try and retrieve the dinghies from which the migrants were rescued. Following the night-time operation, conditions on board the dinghies deteriorated as temperatures soared and the crew was forced to stop any more migrants boarding the ship. Sitting in tight rows on the bridge of the ship, the migrants - mostly from sub-Saharan Africa along with a handful who said they were from Syria - had only a thin sheet of webbing to protect them from the baking sun. Many of them used orange blankets to cover their bodies while their soaked clothes dried nearby. Among the migrants were several young children, as well as entire families and some unaccompanied teenagers. Scuffles broke out between some of the male migrants who had been rescued, prompting the captain to tell the men on the deck that they would be disembarked.