The
Ocean Viking
, SOS Méditerranée's rescue vessel at sea, had 203 people on board Sunday evening to whom it rescued during various rescues in recent days, the NGO announced on Twitter.
In five operations since Thursday, the
Ocean Viking
has therefore rescued 203 people in all, including 67 minors - 49 traveling alone - according to a spokesperson for SOS Méditerranée.
On Sunday afternoon, the
Ocean Viking
came to the aid of 71 migrants at risk on an extremely overloaded wooden boat in the Maltese search and rescue area. Its occupants were fleeing Libya, which they had left three days earlier and, with no food or water on board, were exhausted by the time of the rescue.
"Four of them had to be evacuated from the boat on a stretcher,"
said SOS Mediterranean. Rescued migrants come from Bangladesh, Libya, South Sudan, Egypt, Gambia, Tunisia and Syria.
Since July 1, the
Ocean Viking
has also spotted 5 empty wooden boats,
"including two wooden boats set on fire after their interception by the Libyan coast guard
,
"
added the NGO.
On May 1, the
Ocean Viking
disembarked 236 migrants rescued at sea in Sicily.
The ship then spent several weeks in dry dock in Naples, for work, before resuming the sea from Marseille.
866 migrants died in the Mediterranean
The United Nations recently pinned down Libya and the European Union, calling on them to reform their search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea and claiming that current practices deprive migrants of their rights and dignity, when they do not take away from them. not life.
Since the start of 2021, 866 migrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). SOS Méditerranée claims to have rescued more than 30,000 people since February 2016, first with the
Aquarius
, then the
Ocean Viking.