These operations were launched after a tip-off via the Alert Phone, a telephone line for people in trouble at sea run by an NGO.
In three rescue operations within seven hours, the Ocean Viking ambulance ship used by the humanitarian NGO “SOS Mediterranee” on Friday rescued 153 migrants in the central Mediterranean, in the search area of Malta, according to what AFP learned Saturday from the non-governmental organization.
The European Maritime Rescue Society, based in Marseille (France), stated that “search and rescue operations have been closely coordinated by the Italian maritime authorities,” noting that “the organization has been calling for these vital coordination efforts for years.”
These operations were launched after a tip-off via the Alert Phone, a telephone line for people in trouble at sea run by an NGO.
The three rescue operations allowed 59 people to be rescued, then 65 people on board two wooden boats with a difference of three hours, then 29 people on a fiberglass boat were rescued.
The survivors spent five days at sea, including two without water or food, and were extremely exhausted, according to SOS Mediterranee.
Ongoing rescues
With 15 migrants rescued Thursday, Ocean Viking sails with 168 survivors – including seven women, four children and about twenty unaccompanied minors – to the safe port of Civitavecchia designated by the Italian authorities, 942 km away, or a three-day sail.
Although several rescue operations are carried out in the Maltese search area, the authorities in Malta are unresponsive to requests for assistance from humanitarian NGOs assisting the migrants, and the Italian authorities usually end up directing them to a safe port.
However, Italy’s allocating very remote ports to sea rescue NGOs was criticized in early January by several international NGOs, who asserted that this “hampers assistance to people in distress” by wasting a lot of time and limiting their assistance capabilities.
The central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The United Nations agency estimates that in 2022 the number of missing migrants reached 1,417. Since the beginning of 2023, 824 people have been missing.
