Migrant rescued at sea dies hours after arriving in Italy
An Eritrean rescued in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya has died of severe malnutrition hours after arriving in Italy, an NGO reported on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old, named Segen, was one of 93 people taken onboard a rescue boat operated by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms on Sunday. The organization's founder Oscar Camps had announced Segan's death in a Sicilian hospital on Twitter on Tuesday: "He was Eritrean and he had spent 19 months in Libya."
Era una Persona.En el barco, dijo que tenía de 22 años, se llamaba Segen,Eritreo y estuvo preso en Libia durante 19 meses.Le rescatamos del Mediterráneo el domingo junto 93 personas y trasladado a un hospital justo al llegar a puerto en Sicilia¿Hoy muere por desnutrición severa? pic.twitter.com/DbcjHQKgB3
— Oscar Camps (@campsoscar) March 13, 2018
"He was a person," said Camps.
Many of those rescued by the Spanish NGO's boat and taken to Pozzallo port in Sicily were suffering from malnutrition, exhaustion and dehydration. The condition of Segen's fellow migrants shocked even people used to seeing distressed arrivals from Libya.
READ ALSO: Migrant workers in Calabria protest after woman dies in tent city fire
"They were all skin and bone, they looked like they'd come out of a Nazi concentration camp ... it was terrible, " the mayor of Pozzallo, Roberto Ammatuna. told the Adnkronos news agency.
"Many of the migrants had scabies, but what really left us speechless was their physical condition. Men, women and children without any trace of flesh on them, just a jumble of bones."
The Open Arms found the boat in which Segen had set sail from Libya with 92 other migrants on Saturday night adrift in the Mediterranean.
Despite his condition rescuers on the Open Arms found two people with even worse cases of malnutrition who had to be urgently evacuated from the ship.
"Who knows how long he hadn't eaten for. He was suffering from advanced organ wasting, he was skeletal," said Carmelo Scarso, a local doctor, of Segen to La Repubblica newspaper.
"We've seen plenty of worn out migrants, but this was beyond the limits," he said.
READ ALSO: Italy and Libya to join forces against people traffickers
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The 22-year-old, named Segen, was one of 93 people taken onboard a rescue boat operated by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms on Sunday. The organization's founder Oscar Camps had announced Segan's death in a Sicilian hospital on Twitter on Tuesday: "He was Eritrean and he had spent 19 months in Libya."
Era una Persona.En el barco, dijo que tenía de 22 años, se llamaba Segen,Eritreo y estuvo preso en Libia durante 19 meses.Le rescatamos del Mediterráneo el domingo junto 93 personas y trasladado a un hospital justo al llegar a puerto en Sicilia¿Hoy muere por desnutrición severa? pic.twitter.com/DbcjHQKgB3
— Oscar Camps (@campsoscar) March 13, 2018
"He was a person," said Camps.
Many of those rescued by the Spanish NGO's boat and taken to Pozzallo port in Sicily were suffering from malnutrition, exhaustion and dehydration. The condition of Segen's fellow migrants shocked even people used to seeing distressed arrivals from Libya.
READ ALSO: Migrant workers in Calabria protest after woman dies in tent city fire
"They were all skin and bone, they looked like they'd come out of a Nazi concentration camp ... it was terrible, " the mayor of Pozzallo, Roberto Ammatuna. told the Adnkronos news agency.
"Many of the migrants had scabies, but what really left us speechless was their physical condition. Men, women and children without any trace of flesh on them, just a jumble of bones."
The Open Arms found the boat in which Segen had set sail from Libya with 92 other migrants on Saturday night adrift in the Mediterranean.
Despite his condition rescuers on the Open Arms found two people with even worse cases of malnutrition who had to be urgently evacuated from the ship.
"Who knows how long he hadn't eaten for. He was suffering from advanced organ wasting, he was skeletal," said Carmelo Scarso, a local doctor, of Segen to La Repubblica newspaper.
"We've seen plenty of worn out migrants, but this was beyond the limits," he said.
READ ALSO: Italy and Libya to join forces against people traffickers
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