29 African migrants die of hypothermia after being rescued by Italian coast guard

Twenty-nine migrants have died of hypothermia aboard Italian coast guard vessels after being picked up from a boat adrift near Libya, reigniting criticism of the government’s decision to end a full-scale search-and rescue mission last year.

Two patrol boats picked up 105 people late on Sunday from an inflatable boat drifting in extreme sea conditions, with waves as high as 8 metres and temperatures just a few degrees above zero, the coast guard said in a statement.

The migrants who died on Monday spent 18 hours on the deck of one of the vessels taking them to the Italian island of Lampedusa, buffeted by high winds and spray. One survivor was taken by helicopter to Sicily in critical condition, Pietro Bartolo, Lampedusa’s chief healthcare official, told Reuters.

Lampedusa’s mayor, Giusi Nicolini, blamed last year’s closure of Italy’s search-and-rescue mission, known as Mare Nostrum, for the tragedy. Since then no navy ships capable of keeping large numbers of migrants below deck have patrolled the waters near the Libyan coast.

“Mare Nostrum was an emergency solution to a humanitarian crisis, so closing it was a huge and intolerable step backward,” Nicolini said. Human rights groups had repeatedly warned that ending the mission would endanger lives.

“The small patrol boats were completely swallowed by the waves during the trip back. If Mare Nostrum were still going, the migrants would have been given shelter inside a large ship within an hour,” Nicolini said.

Laura Boldrini, the president of Italy’s lower house of parliament and a former spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said on Twitter the “horror” of “people dying not in a shipwreck but of cold” was due to the suspension of Mare Nostrum.