The Order of Malta’s doctors and psychologists tackle the new drama in the Strait of Sicily

13/02/2015. The latest figures speak of over 300 dead.

“Say what you like, but when you’re on a patrol boat in a force-8 sea and you go to rescue a small, half-deflated and sinking dinghy over 100 miles out, it’s more likely that you won’t find anyone than you’ll be saving lives,” says Mauro Casinghini, National Director of the Order of Malta’s Italian Relief Corps, the day after the new tragedy off Lampedusa, in which over 300 immigrants died.

A figure which is rising by the hour as the survivors testify to four dinghies departing from Tripoli with 460 refugees on board, including women and children, mostly coming from Mali, the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Niger.

Just as in other similar tragic events, the Order of Malta’s Relief Corps’ psychologists arrived in Lampedusa to assist the Coastguards’ personnel and the Order’s doctors and nurses already present.

Read the full article on the Order Of Malta website