Polish ship rescues sinking African refugees
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
05.05.2015 12:17
A Polish ship rescued 91 African refugees after the migrants' rubber vessel started to sink in the Mediterranean, it has emerged.
Photo: Glowimages
The Polish Ocean Lines ship 'Zerań' was on course for Libya when it received a call for assistance from the Italian Navy.
When the ship reached the sinking vessel, some passengers were already overboard.
“It was the very last moment,”commented chairman of Polish Ocean Lines Roman Wozniak in an interview with TVN.
Sailors on board managed to save 81 men, 8 women and 2 children.
Italian naval units then transferred a further 103 refugees to the Polish ship, taking the overall number of saved to 194. Despite the crews' best efforts 5 migrants did not survive the incident.
The refugees, mainly Ethiopians, were then transported to the Sicilian port of Catania.
On 23 April, President of the European Council and former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk held an extraordinary EU summit on the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean after a fishing boat capsized, killing 700 migrants. (nh)