The NGO SOS Méditerranée, which charters the humanitarian boat, deplores having to disembark the migrants in western Italy, nearly 1,200 kilometers from the place where they were rescued.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/01/29/075-zac-landingo231114-npuyv-65b81b19ea605160849745.jpg)
The ambulance ship Ocean Vikingchartered by SOS Méditerranée, rescued 71 migrants off the coast of Libya on Monday January 29. “The overloaded inflatable boat” was first spotted by a plane from the German NGO Sea-Watch, before the rescue of these migrants, including five women, one of whom was pregnant, and 16 unaccompanied minors, details SOS Méditerranée.
“This is the port of Livorno [dans l’Ouest de l’Italie]located at 1 167 kilometers to the North, which was assigned as a safe landing place by the Italian maritime authorities, once again emptying the Libyan search and rescue zone of its resources., deplores the NGO. Italy, on the front line facing migrant crossings, has adopted a decree which partly hinders the activities of NGO ships. The latter must now transport the rescued people to a port, often very distant, from the first operation, which de facto prevents them from carrying out one rescue after another.
SOS Méditerranée has rescued more than 39,000 people in the Mediterranean since 2016, mainly in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migration route in the world. In 2023, 3,041 migrants were reported missing after trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration. Since January, 103 migrants have already gone missing, according to the same source.
