The humanitarian ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée saved, during the night of Monday to Tuesday, 113 people, in international waters dependent on the Libyan research and rescue area.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The Ocean-Viking, a humanitarian ship of the non-governmental organization (NGO) SOS Mediterranean, rescued 113 people in the Mediterranean Sea for its first operation since its docking, in France in November, at the end of an arm of diplomatic iron between Paris and Rome. Among them, “23 women, some of whom are pregnant, around thirty unaccompanied minors and three babies, the youngest of which only three weeks,” said Tuesday, December 27 in a press release the NGO, whose headquarters are located in Marseille.
🔴breaking – Last night, the#Oceanviking evacuated 113 people from an overloaded black pneumatic boat,… https://t.co/yxe0fcunbu
– sosmedfrance (@Sos Mediterranee France)
Migrants were rescued during the night of Monday to Tuesday, in international waters depending on the Libyan research and rescue area. They were on “an overloaded black pneumatic boat, in total darkness”, explains SOS Méditerranée. They were taken care of on the ship by members of the NGO as well as the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
For the time being, the Ocean-Viking “continues to patrol” and “it is still too early” to find out where he will be able to disembark people rescued, reported to the France-Presse Méryl Sotty agency, Word of SOS Méditerranée.
Three weeks of wandering this fall
In mid-November, the Ocean-Viking had landed in Toulon, in the south-east of France, with 230 migrants rescued between Libya and Italy, after three weeks of wandering Looking for a safe port. The French government had agreed to welcome, “exceptionally”, the ship after Italy refused to do so, a decision behind diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
Placed in a closed “waiting area”, most survivors had been released either by legal decision, or because they were isolated minors, or because they had benefited from admission to France asylum.
Since the beginning of the year, 1,998 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 1,369 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (OIM). Each year, thousands of people fleeing conflicts or poverty try to join Europe crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are some 300 kilometers from Italy.