LiveA boat carrying about 500 migrants, including a newborn baby and pregnant women, has disappeared in the central Mediterranean, two charities say. Alarm Phone, a group that picks up calls from migrant vessels in distress, said on Friday it had lost contact with the boat on Wednesday morning. The Italian Coast Guard reported on Thursday the rescue of 423 and 671 migrants in two separate operations in Italian search and rescue waters, and Alarm Phone said they were unrelated to the missing boat. In a separate incident, German charity SOS Humanity said 27 migrants were picked up at sea by an oil tanker and illegally taken back to Libya. Under international humanitarian law, migrants cannot be forcibly returned to countries where they risk serious ill-treatment and widespread migrant abuse has been extensively documented in Libya.
