Three more bodies found in Mediterranean after 11 discovered by SOS Méditerranée

Three more bodies have been found in the Mediterranean Sea, days after the rescue organisation SOS Méditerranée discovered 11 bodies in international waters.

The latest bodies were spotted on Saturday, August 15, by the Sea-Watch reconnaissance aircraft Seabird 1 and the rescue organisation RESQSHIP, according to Sea-Watch.

Following the discovery, the Sea-Watch 5 and Nadir rescue vessels sailed to the location to begin identification procedures. However, the bodies could not be recovered because of their advanced state of decomposition and the limited recovery capabilities of the civilian vessels.

Sea-Watch said, according to its current information, that European authorities had not initiated any recovery operation.

Giulia Messmer, a spokesperson for Sea-Watch, said the deaths represented the human cost of European migration policies that prioritise border control over the protection of lives.

“These are the people behind ‘fewer arrivals’ – hunted alive, forgotten dead,” Messmer said. She added that behind each body was a person with a life and relatives who might never learn what happened to them.

Sea-Watch said more than 1,600 people have died or gone missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year.

The organisation said the discovery of the bodies highlighted what it described as the consequences of policies that deny migrants safe routes while restricting or failing to provide adequate search-and-rescue operations at sea.

Sea-Watch called for the establishment of safe migration routes and a comprehensive, state-organised sea-rescue system to prevent further deaths in the Mediterranean.