Immigration –
More than 100 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya
The NGO SOS Méditerranée said on Saturday that the ship Ocean Viking rescued 101 migrants, including seven children, off the coast of Libya.
AFP
Published today at 10:31 p.m. Updated 35 minutes ago
The Ocean Viking ambulance ship, chartered by SOS Méditerranée, at the port of Civitavecchia, Italy, July 14, 2023.
AFP
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The Ocean Viking ambulance ship, chartered by SOS Méditerranée, rescued 101 migrants including 29 women and 7 children in a wooden boat in distress off the Libyan coast, its first rescue of the year, the NGO announced on Friday.
“The boat in distress was spotted with binoculars, in the international waters of the Libyan search and rescue region,” said SOS Méditerranée, an organization based in Marseille, in the south-east of France, in a press release.
The survivors, mainly from Somalia, Syria, Eritrea and Egypt, were then taken care of by teams from SOS Méditerranée and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“These cynical decisions cost lives”
The Ocean Viking is now heading towards Ravenna, the disembarkation port assigned to it by the Italian authorities. “It was Ravenna, four days’ sail away, which was designated as the port of disembarkation, even though the weather was bad and the sea was rough. We are therefore asking the Italian authorities to designate a closer port,” criticized the NGO.
“We recall that according to international maritime law, rescued people must be disembarked “within a reasonable time”. Yet for more than two years, the remote ports policy has deliberately delayed rescues and put people in danger. These cynical decisions cost lives,” she accused.
According to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 31 people trying to reach Europe have already disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the year. In 2024, there would be 2,301 of them, the vast majority of them in the central Mediterranean, which remains one of the deadliest migratory routes in the world.
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