Dozens of migrants die after their rubber boat deflates in the Mediterranean Sea

A European humanitarian aid group said Thursday that about 50 migrants died after their small boat deflated while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean.

A ship of the charity, SOS Mediterranean, spotted the deflating dinghy in international waters under the Libyan rescue jurisdiction on Wednesday. On board were twenty-five dehydrated and exhausted migrants.

The survivors told the charity they had been adrift for four days after their dinghy engine broke down. There were about 50 other people with them when they left the Libyan port of Zawiya, they told rescuers, including two babies and four women. There were only male survivors, half of whom were boys, the charity said.

Valeria Taurino, the director general of SOS Mediterranee, said the situation on board was “disastrous.”

Two of the passengers were unconscious when found and were evacuated by the Italian military for treatment on shore. The rest, from Gambia, Mali and Senegal, showed signs of dehydration, exhaustion and burns from the fuel on the boat, and received medical treatment aboard the charity ship, the Ocean Viking, Ms Taurino said.

The Ocean Viking was on its way to disembark its passengers in Ancona, on the northeastern Italian coast, more than 800 miles from where the survivors were found. The government says it is spreading the burden of identifying and later housing migrants. But charity groups claim the practice is aimed at keeping ships busy and out of the ocean where they are searching for migrant boats, and making rescues more expensive in terms of fuel consumption.

Migration advocates say there is a dire shortage of rescue workers in the central Mediterranean. The UN’s International Organization for Migration said 227 migrants have died on the Mediterranean route this year, not including the latest shipwreck. Although the number of arrivals has decreased by 70 percent compared to 2023, the death rate is not falling as quickly.

“The number of deaths has only fallen by 20 percent,” said Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration in Italy. “It is a clear sign that the sea rescue system is inadequate and that more and more people are dying as a result.”