Boat carrying 500 migrants vanishes in central Mediterranean

On Wednesday morning, Alarm Phone, a group that responds to distress calls from migrant vessels, lost contact with the boat.

At that time, the boat was adrift in rough seas, approximately 320 km (200 miles) north of the Libyan port of Benghazi, and over 400 km away from Malta or Italy's southern island of Sicily.

🆘~500 persone alla deriva nel #Mediterraneo!

AlarmPhone è stata allertata da una barca in pericolo. Le persone a bordo riferiscono di essere fuggite dalla #Libia diversi giorni fa e che il motore è in avaria. Le autorità competenti sono state informate. I soccorsi sono urgenti! pic.twitter.com/j9Yhu7BVa0
— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) May 23, 2023

The Italian NGO Emergency stated on Thursday that their Life Support ship and another charity vessel called the Ocean Viking had searched for the missing boat for 24 hours but found no evidence of a shipwreck.

On Friday, an Emergency spokesperson confirmed that the search was ongoing, suggesting that the migrants may have been rescued by another boat or managed to repair their engine and continue their journey toward Sicily. (ILKHA)