EUROPE’S Mediterranean and Aegean borders were once again the scene of multiple tragedies and ignored emergencies at the weekend.

A pregnant woman began giving birth in a dinghy between Greece and Italy on Saturday after having spent at least 15 hours with 31 others at sea. 

Alarm Phone, an activist network which operates an emergency hotline for people in distress at sea, was contacted by the boat early on Saturday morning.

The activists shared multiple videos and photographs sent to them from the vessel on social media.

In one, the refugees can be seen paddling the dinghy with their hands as water gushes in from a hole.

In another, a Greek coastguard ship passes the migrants’ boat at high speeds, using the waves to push the boat back towards Turkey, several times.

“She is dying, the situation is very dangerous,” the refugees said of the pregnant woman in the evening.

“She is bleeding, I can’t do anything, please, a doctor, a doctor. We just need a doctor, a baby die, come on, a baby die, we need doctor.”

The activists received a photograph a few hours later of the woman lying down in the dinghy, covered in a blanket.

“The woman is giving birth in the dark on a dinghy in distress,” Alarm Phone wrote above the picture on Twitter.

“All competent authorities have knowledge of the situation. The Greek and Turkish coastguards, [the European Border and Coastguard Agency] Frontex and Nato bear the full responsibility of these lives and any fatalities.”

At 11.35pm local time, the Greek coastguard confirmed that it had finally rescued the 32 people and had taken them to Lesbos. No updates have yet been given on the pregnant woman or her baby.

Meanwhile, a refugee boat sank six nautical miles off the coast of Libya on Saturday.

The International Organisation for Migration received reports of a shipwreck off the coast of Zawiya, Libya.
 
“Twenty survivors are reporting that 12 people are missing at sea, among them two children,” the UN-affiliated organisation said later.

This latest refugee shipwreck comes just days after 53 people lost their lives off the coast of Tunisia.

In a statement late on Friday night the UN said secretary-general Antonio Guterres was “deeply shocked” by the discovery of multiple mass graves in territory controlled by rebel commander Khalifa Hifter.

“The secretary-general calls for a thorough and transparent investigation, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

“In particular, he calls on the authorities to secure the mass graves, identify the victims, establish causes of death and return the bodies to next of kin.”