Catching the most common sea voyage to Europe from Africa, migrants often face dangers not seen on land. BBC Weather’s Sophia Wilkes reports on why marine patrols don’t always save their lives.
“Group of Hastings fishermen block RNLI lifeboat crew” pic.twitter.com/5kcz3teFS2 — Richie Baltrusch (@RichieBaltrusch) October 23, 2017
In the middle of the night, a group of migrants attempted to swim to shore in Bermuda. Sadly, the risk of swimming across five miles of rough seas is too great.
As the boat passes, armed men on a nearby yacht form a group to protect the migrants.
The lifeboat crew board, rescuing three children but leaving the fisherman on the yacht who blocks the boat’s door to prevent the crew entering the sea.
The pirates board the yacht and demand a ransom of £450,000 ($533,000) to free the migrants, who face ill-treatment if detained in a prison in the UK, so they board the boat and speed it away from the coast.
This follows a growing trend in illegal fishing in foreign waters, from Somalia and across the Indian Ocean, where vessels plunder fish stocks. They use foul and violent tactics to force coastguards to abandon their efforts to catch them.