At least 60 migrants have disappeared in the central Mediterranean after leaving Zawiya in Libya, said several survivors rescued Wednesday by the Ocean Viking, the ambulance ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée.
“The survivors report that at least 60 people died on the way, including women and at least one child
,” the Marseille-based NGO said on Thursday, while the ship was heading towards a safe port with 224 survivors collected. during three successive rescues.
The International Organization for Migration said in a tweet that it was
“very concerned by the news of a shipwreck in the central Mediterranean”
:
“The Ocean Viking is reported to have rescued 25 people who left Zawiya, Libya, there is a week away and around 60 other people are still missing
,” the IOM continued.
Dangerous migration route
The boat left Zawiya on March 8 and the engine broke down after three days, leaving the migrants adrift, without water or food for days, SOS Méditerranée detailed.
After this first rescue of 25 people, 113 people, including 6 women and 2 children, were rescued on Wednesday evening, after the Ocean Viking was tasked by the Italian maritime authorities with rescuing this boat in distress.
Then, on Thursday, 88 people were rescued by the ship as they drifted aboard an
“overloaded inflatable boat”
.
The port of Ancona, on the Italian Adriatic coast, has been designated as a safe place of disembarkation to welcome the Ocean Viking, which now has on board
“224 people, including 21 women, around thirty unaccompanied minors and four children under 4 years old
,” explained SOS Méditerranée.
Ancona is
“1,450 km from the position of the Ocean Viking”
and “the Italian maritime authorities were asked
for a closer place to disembark
,” added the NGO.
SOS Méditerranée has rescued more than 39,000 people in the Mediterranean since 2016, mainly in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world.
In 2023, 3,105 migrants died or went missing after trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the IOM.
Since January, 278 migrants have died or gone missing, according to the same source.