6 month-old baby dies in aboard Spanish migrant rescue ship

Spanish migrant rescue charity, `Open Arms’ on Thursday reported that a six-month-old baby had died hours after he was taken from the Mediterranean.

The boy was among 111 survivors taken in by Open Arms on Wednesday after it sent rescue units to a rubber dinghy whose hull had exploded off the Libyan coast.

In the operation, five bodies were also recovered and the death of the 6-month-old boy, who hailed from Guinea, brought the death toll from the shipwreck to six.

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Open Arms spokeswoman said the dead baby, his mother; a 25-year-old man with serious heart trouble and a pregnant woman were transferred overnight to an Italian coastguard vessel and taken ashore.

The Open Arms, currently the only active rescue charity vessel in the central Mediterranean, has around 260 migrants on board, after three separate operations between Tuesday and Wednesday.

For months, small boats carrying migrants have been departing from Libya and Tunisia, usually trying to reach Italy.

According to Italian Interior Ministry data, the country has registered almost 31,000 migrant arrivals in 2020 so far, compared to almost 10,000 over the same period in 2019.

(Dpa/NAN)

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