THE ITALIAN coastguards kept about 400 people in distress on nine boats in the central Mediterranean waiting for hours to be saved on Wednesday.

The crew of the MareGo, an activist-run refugee rescue ship, discovered six boats, carrying 285 people in total, off the coast of Tunisia in the morning.

The MareGo was not big enough to accommodate the survivors, and so the crew stabilised the refugee boats and waited for the authorities to assist with the rescue.

When the crew found a seventh boat later in the afternoon, they took on board an unconscious, pregnant woman.

Five hours after raising the alarm, the Italian coastguards eventually arrived on the scene. By that time, MareGo said, the sun had set, and the crew had lost sight of some of the boats.

“The delay exposed the survivors and our crew to the danger of operating in the dark, with boats drifting apart and being at risk of sinking or being lost at sea,” MareGo said yesterday.

“While at daytime we stabilised seven distress cases, two more cases were found during operation.

“One of them was found as people screamed for help, when [about] 15 people without life-jackets were in the water. Thanks to our crew’s fast reaction, all could be recovered safely.”

Eight of the nine boats were taken on board the Italian coastguard vessels, while the rest were brought aboard the MareGo, which is now on its way to the Italian port of Trapani.