L’Ocean-Viking, humanitarian ship of SOS Méditerranée, which has carried out ten rescue operations at sea since Wednesday, awaited, Sunday August 28, the attribution of“a safe harbor” to disembark the 466 people rescued. “Many of them are exhausted by a long and difficult migratory journey, the suffering endured in Libya and the trauma of a dangerous crossing in oppressive heat”wrote the NGO in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Eighty-one minors, including a baby
The migrants, of nineteen nationalities, are mostly from Bangladesh, Egypt, Tunisia and Eritrea. Among them are eighty-one minors, most of whom are unaccompanied, and a three-week-old infant. The situation on the deck of the ambulance ship “is currently quiet”detailed the NGO which takes care of the survivors on board with the help of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
At dusk, the #OceanViking spotted 1 wooden boat in distress in the Maltese Search & Rescue region… https://t.co/untornUhkk
Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict or poverty try to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are some 300 kilometers from Italy. Since the beginning of the year, 1,161 migrants have disappeared, including 918 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration. In 2021, 2,048 people died during their crossing.
A call from NGOs on August 3
In a joint statement issued on August 3, several NGOs operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean called for “to the Member States and Associated States of the European Union [UE] to put in place an adequate, State-led, specific and proactive search and rescue fleet in the central Mediterranean, as well as a rapid and adequate response to all distress calls, and a mechanism for the predictable disembarkation of survivors”.
The EU ended its controversial operation to combat human trafficking in the Mediterranean in 2020. Rescuing migrants has since been left to the discretion of states, but NGOs complain that countries are ignoring calls from distress or even work with the Libyan authorities to return migrants there.