The Ocean Viking, the SOS Mediterranean rescue ship at sea, picked up in the Mediterranean on the night of Sunday 4 to Monday 5 July 369 new migrants after a sixth rescue operation in a few days, AFP learned from the 'NGO.
The ship now has 572 survivors on board, says SOS Méditerranée on its Twitter account.
Read also: The Ocean Viking rescues 203 people in a few days in the Mediterranean
The latest rescue involved a "
large wooden boat
" reported "
in distress in the Libyan search and rescue region
" late Sunday afternoon, an NGO spokesperson told AFP. This boat was spotted on the radar and then visually around 10 p.m., and the rescue operations then lasted more than 5 hours. Among the 369 people rescued on board, 9 women, 1 infant, 2 children and 110 unaccompanied minors, according to SOS Méditerranée, originating in particular from Egypt, Bangladesh or Eritrea.
On Sunday afternoon, the Ocean Viking had already come to the aid of 71 migrants in danger 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.
866 dead in the Mediterranean in 2021
On May 1, the Ocean Viking landed 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.
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.
Read also: The Ocean Viking helps 44 migrants in the Mediterranean
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.
