Over 1,300 migrants arrived by boat at Lampedusa on Tuesday and Wednesday from Tunisia. In a press release, the Italian coast guard patted themselves on the back for saving 38 of them.
The Italian coast guard rescued 38 migrants who traveled over the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Lampedusa on March 8.
"The Italian coast guard never backed away, and never will, from rescuing lives at risk," the general commander of Italy's coast guard, Admiral Nicola Carlone, said in a press release following the rescue.
The Italian coast guard has been under intense scrutiny over the past few weeks following a deadly shipwreck off the coast of Calabria that many believe happened in response to authority mismanagement.
"Approximately 60 thousand lives saved in 2022," the press release wrote. "Our actions speak for themselves and so do the 60 thousand people saved in 2022."
Sank off coast
The migrants, who crossed the sea from Tunisia, found themselves in distress off the coast of Lampedusa.
A rescue operation was launched immediately after the boat was sighted by a Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) airplane.
A warning to the search-and-rescue authority in Malta's capital Valletta reported the presence of a few crammed iron boats around 10 miles from the Italian coastline in the process of sinking.
Malta requested the intervention of the Italian coast guard, which sent its nearest unit, a patrol boat.
Members aboard the vessel started rescue operations immediately upon arrival. At that point, one of the boats had taken on a significant amount of water and had started sinking.
The officials aboard the patrol boat, along with members of the Italian coast guard who arrived shortly after, were able to save all the migrants on board.
Cutro shipwreck
Carlone did not mention the coast guard's chain of command on the day of the Cutro shipwreck in the press release.
Italian prosecutors are in the process of investigating who holds responsibility for the wreck.