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Alarm Phone: sending out an SOS
Ben Cowles spoke to JACOB BERKSON, one of a transnational team of activists who monitor refugee boats in the Mediterranean, pressing the European coastguard to save drowning migrants
ON CALL: Jacob Berkson is one of a team that staffs an acitvist hotline for refugee boats in distress

AT LEAST 260 people, including pregnant women and children, set off from war-torn Libya a few days before Good Friday on four overcrowded and unseaworthy boats. 

Only two boats made it to safety. 

Around 71 people made it all the way to Italy. Forty-seven others were picked up the Basque rescue ship Aita Maria after spending four days at sea. They were forced to wait six more days before Italy would take them in.  


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