One hundred and six new people were rescued on Friday evening, January 22 off Libya by the "
Ocean Viking
", the SOS Mediterranean sea rescue ship, bringing to 374 the number of survivors recovered in 48 hours by the NGO based in Marseille.
"
106 people were rescued (...) in international waters 28 nautical miles (around fifty kilometers Editor's note) from the Libyan coast
", tweeted SOS Mediterranean.
"
Most of the people on the dinghy were found to be very intoxicated by the fuel vapors by the rescue team
," she continues.
The survivors are from Guinea, Sudan and Sierra Leone, according to the same source.
Friday morning, the "
ambulance ship
" had rescued 149 people in two "
boats in distress
".
The day before, during its first rescue since returning to sea, the ship had recovered 119 people.
Among them were 58 minors as well as four babies, including one only one month old.
Since Thursday, 374 people are on board the ship.
165 of them are minors, and the vast majority, 131, unaccompanied, SOS Mediterranean told AFP.
Thirty are children, aged 12 or under.
The Ocean Viking returned to sea from Marseille on January 11, after being stranded for five months in Italy where the authorities imposed costly work on it.
It is currently the only NGO relief ship in the region, according to NGO director Sophie Beau, "
the others being blocked by the Italian authorities as was the Ocean Viking before
".
The candidates for exile from various countries mainly leave Tunisia and Libya to reach Europe via Italy, whose coasts are the closest.
In total, more than 1,200 migrants perished in 2020 in the Mediterranean, the vast majority of them on this central route, according to the International Migration Office.